Children's overnight A&E shut at King George Hospital until June

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust had hoped to reopen the children's A&E next month, but this has now been delayed until June 7.

The department originally closed in November because the trust says it did not have enough staff to provide specialist children's doctors at King George at night, due to the impact of coronavirus.

The trust says it will be in a position to safely reopen the children' emergency department in June.

A statement on the hospital trust's website says: "Providing safe, high quality treatment and care to children and young people is, and always will be, our priority.

"Our two hospitals have been badly hit by Covid-19 and this has had an impact on some of our services; on our ability to recruit new doctors; and has meant some of our paediatricians have had to shield.

"We had to close our children’s inpatient ward at King George Hospital, at the height of the pandemic, to look after very sick Covid-19 patients. All children who need to stay in hospital will continue to be admitted to our children’s ward at Queen’s Hospital.

"In November 2020 we announced the temporary overnight closure of the children’s emergency department at King George Hospital because we didn’t have enough staff to provide specialist children’s doctors at King George Hospital at night. Our hope then was to reopen in April 2021, subject to the ongoing impact of the pandemic.

"Over the past four months, we have been successfully recruiting new doctors. We have decided, on the grounds of safety, that we can now reopen the children’s Emergency Department at King George Hospital overnight on Monday June 7 2021."

Any child needing emergency care between 9pm and 9am is advised to be taken to Queen's Hospital in Romford until June 7, as has been the case since November.

The children’s emergency department at King George remains open between 9am and 9pm, seven-days-a-week.