As we recover from Covid-19, we are continuing to invest at King George Hospital, in particular to upgrade our Emergency Department (ED) and increase diagnostic capacity, to ensure we meet the needs of our patients.

In the last 12 months, we have invested £9m at King George Hospital, which included £2m to improve and enlarge our ED, £5m to update and upgrade our MRI and CT equipment and over £2m to replace and upgrade facilities for patients and staff including new boilers, new pedestrian crossings and a new mortuary.

Recent improvements to our ED have included the opening of a six bed resuscitation development, a Rapid Access and First Treatment (RAFTing) area and ‘majors’ cubicles, as well as the reconfiguration of our ambulance entrance which now provides direct access to our resuscitation bays and RAFTing area.

A further £3m will be spent this financial year on our ED, which will see us make improvements to our patient observation area and our children’s ED. This will also go towards our staff welfare areas, with the wellbeing of our workforce continuing to be a dedicated focus for our Board.

As we continue to improve our patient care and experience, an additional £12m will be invested at King George Hospital over the next 12 months.

This includes the continuing work on our ED, a £4m redevelopment of our Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU), which will see it increase from an eight to 15 beds, improved diagnostic and IT services, and an upgrade to the site’s infrastructure.

We are also improving and increasing our diagnostics capacity at King George Hospital, while also continuing to work with our partners across north east London to tackle diagnostic waiting lists.

We’ve increased the number of CT scanners at King George Hospital from one to two and we are also replacing our two MRIs with faster and better state-of-the-art machines. One MRI has already been replaced and the second will be replaced in January 2022, when we go live with a brand new 3T MRI machine. We’ve also invested in two new ultrasound rooms and two digital mobile X-ray machines. This investment in our diagnostic capacity will help reduce waiting times and strengthens our resilience.

Tony Chambers, our Chief Executive, said: “This continued investment at King George Hospital is fantastic news. Improving our facilities is crucial because patient experience is not about treatment alone; the environment we care for them in matters too.

“Patients and carers are at the heart of everything we do. Transforming our ED and diagnostic capacity will help us provide the best experience of care possible, while also reducing waiting times.”