Great news about health trust, now let’s save King George A&E

News that the Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust has emerged from special measures is very welcome – and a testament to the efforts of staff and management during a challenging period for the NHS.

I wish them well as they tackle the remaining areas identified by the inspectors as “requiring improvement”.

However, all is not well within our local NHS. Barts Health Trust remains in special measures. Our GP services are struggling to cope with increasing demands and low recruitment of new GPs. We also have a growing and ageing population of patients with greater care needs.

Against this backdrop, it is hard to see how the closure of A&E at King George Hospital can safely go ahead.

That’s why I’m leading a cross-party inquiry into the future of A&E at King George Hospital, working alongside Labour and Conservative councillors to try and get to the bottom of what’s really going on and whether we might find a way to stop the loss of this vital facility.

Over 10,000 people have already signed my parliamentary petition to save King George A&E and now we need as many people as possible to join us on the march to save the A&E on Saturday, March 18.

We’re gathering at Melbourne Field in Valentines Park at 1.30pm for a 2pm march to the Town Hall for a rally.

If you value our A&E at King George Hospital, I hope you’ll join me and your neighbours in coming along.