Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times at Queen’s Hospital Urgent Treatment Centre and Emergency Department in the context of the finding of the Care Quality Commission's recent report that those services are in need of improvement.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have advised that processes have been streamlined in the urgent treatment centre and emergency department at Queen’s Hospital to reduce waiting times. The Partnership of East London Co-operatives is reviewing how patients are received on arrival and how joint working with general practitioners will improve patient safety and assessments.

An area has been created in the emergency department to reduce the number of patients requiring admission, which has allowed an approximate a 13% reduction in the average waiting time. An ambulance receiving centre and a short stay medical ward have also been established to improve patient flow through the hospital and reduce waiting times.