Brentwood’s nearest Accident and Emergency department at Queen’s Hospital Romford, sees about 400 patients a day
Following a report by the Care Quality Commission that its A&E was “at times unsafe because of the lack of full-time consultants and middle-grade doctors”, Queen’s became the 14th hospital to be put into special measures last December.

Saleyha Ahsan on behalf of The Guardian newspaper began filming inside its A&E the next day and some shocking videos were published on the Guardian website on Tuesday. You can watch the videos here – Queens A & E
The hospital was built for 90,000 patients a year but receives 140,000. Ironically, King George’s A&E, which performs better against targets, is scheduled for closure in 2015, after a unanimous vote by local primary care trusts. Queen’s is expected to absorb the extra numbers. Queen’s is understaffed, with only eight full-time consultants where it requires 21 in order to provide 24-hour cover, seven days a week.
I think that these videos, show the situation at Queens really well and I would urge local people to watch them to see what’s going on at Queens Hospital.
Fly on the wall style we see the conditions in which the staff are expected to work and how patients are treated. It seems obvious that the NHS staff are doing their very best under very difficult conditions. We hear of people waiting on chairs who should be on trolleys and Ambulances queuing to get into the hospital. Targets seldom being met, no beds available in wards, and overwhelming demand for the service.
Sadly many people don’t seem to worry about issues like this until it affects them personally, but I think we should all be getting very angry about this. It could be you next.