Hospital’s Hardest Winter

The chief executive of Barking Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust, Matthew Trainer, believes this is the harshest winter he can remember. The trust’s two emergency departments in east London, Queen’s Hospital in Romford and King George Hospital in Ilford, had their busiest month ever in December, with almost 1,000 patients requiring treatment every day.

Corridor Care

As we walk through the emergency room at Queen’s, 51 patients are being treated on trolleys in the hallways. This is the third winter of so-called “corridor care” at the hospital. The hallways have been outfitted with new electrical outlets, sinks and emergency alarms to meet demand, but Trainer is open about the strain this brings. “Corridor maintenance is what concerns me most as the manager of the hospital and as a person dealing with parents and family members.”

Impact on Patients and Staff

Trainer has asked the government for £35 million to build a new emergency department at Queen’s Hospital. The Royal College of Nursing said that corridor nursing was “entrenched” in all hospitals in England. When asked if that description — “firmly rooted” — applies to his confidence, Trainer is cautious. “It’s difficult because it almost means we start to accept it, but we don’t. Our third winter of field maintenance is a terrible place to be.” He says staff comes to work around the clock to care for patients as dignified and respectfully as possible.

Patient Experiences

On the day of our visit we met Cliff Mitchell at 2pm who was there with his elderly father Roy. Roy had been standing on a trolley in the hallway since 6 p.m. the night before. As his father prepares to leave after treatment, Cliff describes the scene around him. “There are people everywhere, it looks like organized chaos to me. Staff shouldn’t be working in these conditions, patients shouldn’t be treated like this in the hallways.”

Maternity Ward

The pressure is also being felt elsewhere at Queen’s Hospital. Last year around 7,000 babies were born in the maternity ward, around 600 every month. With 400 midwives, it is the third largest ward in the country and was rated “good” by the Care Quality Commission last December. New parents Holly Chilvers and Sonny Butler are still excited about the arrival of their eight-hour-old son Landon, who was born sooner than expected.

Elective Surgical Hub

Another approach to relief is underway at the trust’s sister hospital in Ilford. King George Hospital is home to the Elective Surgical Hub, a unit of nine operating theaters dedicated exclusively to elective surgeries. By separating them from emergency work, the trust hopes they will be less likely to be disrupted. Last year, more than 10,000 elective surgeries were carried out at the hub, helping to reduce waiting lists.

Surgical Technology

Former nurse Stuart Ayris was preparing for knee replacement surgery when we met him. He said he was impressed at how quickly his operation was arranged. The operation was led by orthopedic consultant Sivakumar Shankar, assisted by a robot, one of the few in the capital. “It helps us decide what the right implant should be based on detailed imaging of the patient,” he explains. “I tell the robot what to do and then it does it. This helps us make the operation even more precise.”

Conclusion

As the team drilled and shaped the bone to fit into the replacement, the technology offered a glimpse of progress in a system under stress. Some challenges at Queen’s and King George are being addressed. Others, including the longstanding reliance on hallway maintenance, are still a work in progress. While Trainer’s £35m bid for a new emergency department could ease pressure at Queen’s Hospital, he says the bigger challenge lies elsewhere: finding ways to prevent so many people from going to hospital in the first place.