Eagle eyed patients and visitors to Queen’s Hospital may have noticed that some hoardings have gone up around the out of hours’ maternity entrance. So what’s happening, we hear you ask?  

We are about to start on our very exciting programme of developments to improve our Emergency Department (ED) and Urgent Care Centre (UCC).

Earlier this year we successfully bid for £1,000,000 of funding from the Department of Health, to which we’ve added our own money, to do some much-needed work to improve the facilities for those patients in need of urgent care.

Queen’s Hospital has one of the busiest emergency departments in London. And, it’s getting busier.

So we need to make these improvements to help us improve their experience whilst in our hospital, particularly as so many more people are now attending our emergency department. It will also provide a much better working environment for our staff.

After we’ve finished (hopefully early in the new year), you’ll see:

• we’ll have slightly moved the entrance from where it is now to where the maternity entrance is currently
• a new and improved reception area when you walk in, with better private areas for you to be initially assessed
• more private consultation rooms (not just curtains – real walls and doors!)
• services a bit closer together, so you won’t need a map and compass to go from your assessment to get a blood test, or an x-ray
• a much improved waiting area for our little patients (children) as it gets so cramped

We are doing everything we can to keep any disruption to an absolute minimum so please bear with us while we make your hospital better for you.

We would urge patients to do their best to check our website, our Twitter feed, and our Facebook page where we are going to keep you up to date as best we can with all the latest information.

And finally, while we say this every winter, this year more than ever, please think really carefully before you come to our ED over the next few months.

We want you to get best care for your condition, in the best place. That could be much closer to home, and allow you to be seen much more quickly, for example, by your pharmacist or GP. Find out more in our Get the right care section of our website or call NHS 111.