The new MP for Dagenham and Rainham Margaret Mullane has given her backing to our plans for a new A&E department at Queen’s Hospital.

After visiting the department, Margaret was impressed with the care and dedication of our teams but agreed that the area needed to be transformed.

It comes as discussions have continued with NHS England about securing the estimated £35m to redesign the department.

Built to accommodate around 300 patients a day who were seeking urgent and emergency care, now, at peak times, more than double that number come through its doors.

And numbers are continuing to rise with an extra 1,100 patients attending the Queen’s A&E in July this year when compared with the year before.

Margaret was also shown around our maternity department where she heard about all the work our teams are doing to continue improving patient care.

Margaret said:

It was a very insightful visit to Queen’s today. There is lots of ambition and the direction of travel for improving care is hopeful.

One of my key pledges at the election in July was to get faster treatment at Queen’s for my constituents. Matthew and his senior leadership team have exciting plans to expand the Emergency Department, and in the weeks and months ahead I will work closely with them to help realise this investment.

I want to say a huge thank you to all the staff that took the time to meet with me today. There seems to be a very positive culture at the hospital and it’s clear staff are going above and beyond to deliver the best possible care for local people.

Matthew Trainer, our Chief Executive, added:

It was great to welcome Margaret here as an MP for the first time. She’s been a big supporter of ours for years and I appreciate her commitment to helping us improve the care we deliver here at Queen’s.

I’m glad she’s seen our A&E department first-hand and the remarkable job our team does every day, despite the conditions they work in. We all want to build a better Emergency Department here so that we can put an end to corridor care.

Margaret Mullane is the latest of our local MPs to support our plans alongside Andrew Rosindell MP and Julia Lopez MP.