Queen’s and King George Hospitals suspend non-urgent services

People are asked to help by following coronavirus guidance 

Non-urgent services at Queen’s and King George Hospitals have been suspended to help manage increasing Covid-19 rates in the local area. 

Both medical facilities will focus on treating patients who need the most urgent care and staff will be allocated to the areas that most need them. 

Starting today, outpatient appointments which are not urgent will be held virtually instead. During the first wave, thousands of appointments were converted to phone clinics which stopped people from needing to attend either hospital. 

Non-urgent procedures will also be postponed from next week, however, urgent cancer surgeries and chemotherapy will continue. Cancer and urgent diagnostic endoscopies will also continue at King George Hospital, within the private sector or diagnostic hubs.

All of the changes will be in place until Monday, 11 January when they will be reviewed. 

“We appreciate this is not what any of us were hoping for, however the pandemic is continuing to cause immense challenges across north east London,” said a spokesperson for Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust. 

“Please rest assured that together with our partners we are doing everything we can together as a system to support each other and minimise the impact on our patients.”

The trust has also asked people to play their part in helping to keep pressure off both hospitals and other community care services by following coronavirus guidance. 

For more on this story, and the latest on our other local and national news, listen to Time 107.5FM