- Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust to receive £4,100,000 to upgrade A&E facilities ahead of winter.
- Part of £1.5 billion announced by the Prime Minister to upgrade hospitals, accelerate hospital building and expand A&E facilities.
Keith Prince, London Assembly Member for Havering and Redbridge, welcomed news that Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust is set to receive an additional £4,100 in order to support A&E capacity ahead of the winter months.
The extra £4,100,000 means that the Trust will be able to increase its Accident & Emergency capacity, put enhanced infection prevention and control measures in place and make improvements to emergency care and urgent treatment services.
Across England, the Government is providing £300 million to Accident & Emergency departments, with work to be completed by the start of next year so hospitals can benefit from the upgrades during the peak of winter.
In June, the Prime Minister announced plans to accelerate £5 billion of infrastructure spending as part of his New Deal for Britain - an ambitious economic strategy to rebuild Britain by putting jobs, skills and infrastructure investment at the heart of the Government’s plans. This funding forms part of the New Deal, which allocated a total of £1.5 billion this year for hospital maintenance, hospital building and Accident & Emergency expansion.
The funding also comes on top of the additional £3 billion that the Prime Minister recently announced to help prepare the National Health Service for the winter months ahead. This funding will allow the NHS to continue to use the extra hospital capacity acquired from the independent sector through the coronavirus pandemic, and also to maintain the Nightingale hospitals until the end of March next year.
Commenting, Keith Prince AM said:
Staff at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust have worked tirelessly over recent months, and I would like to thank them for everything they have done to get our local community through the coronavirus pandemic.
While we hope for the best this winter, its right that we plan for the worst. This funding to upgrade A&E across the Trust will ensure that we are in the best possible position for the challenges that the winter months may bring.
As a Conservative, the NHS is my top priority and I was [re-]elected last December on a promise to deliver record NHS investment and level up the health service across the country. I am delighted to see the Conservatives in Government getting on with doing exactly that.
