Dear colleagues,  

Winter pressures  

I first invited the media  to capture the reality of corridor care at Queen’s Hospital and its impact on our patients and staff in January 2023.

In the three years since, the number of people seeking urgent and emergency care at our Trust has increased by an extra 153 people a day.

This week, I told ITV News  that our ongoing use of corridors in the A&E wasn’t right or fair and it wasn’t something I’d want for one of my relatives.   

The department was designed for 325 patients a day. We’re now seeing more than double that number i n an environment that is badly laid out and overcrowded.   

We ’ve decided it’s safer to bring people into the hospital rather than keep them outside on ambulances . W e prioritis e those who are sickest which means some people , who are n' t acutely ill , face a very long wait.    

With the support of all of our local MPs, we’re campaigning for the funds to rebuild the Queen’s A&E, improve the experience of patients and staff and eradicate corridor care .    

Our care for mothers and babies  is improving  

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has announced it has upgraded its rating of our maternity service at Queen’s Hospital to Good  from Requires Improvement .    

This reflects how the CQC has confidence in us , f ollowing their inspection in August - where we were able to show how we’ve addressed  their  previous  concerns - and they believe we are performing well and meeting expectations .  

We ’ve invested heavily in more midwives and doctors and made changes to the way we run services , including using our theatres  more innovatively to meet the increasing demand for  caesarean  sections –  it’s gone up  40% since 2020.

We’ve also seen a  44% reduction in the number of stillbirths over the last year thanks to the team offering more consistency in the midwife team looking after women from our more deprived areas; improved support for vulnerable women; and better use of interpreters.   

We still have plenty to do to make sure every mother and baby gets the care they deserve ; however, this is an important moment for our  Trust .   

I'm glad the hard work of our team has been recognised , and I hope  this will give local women more confidence about the care we provide at Queen's.  

Increasing HIV diagnoses  

We marked World AIDS Day  with our staff offering quick finger prick tests that gave people their HIV status in a matter of minutes.  

They ran stalls in the Ilford Exchange and at Queen’s where they had the opportunity to discuss HIV care with the public, bust myths about the virus and help break down the taboo still associated with the illness.  

World AIDS Day was also when Health Secretary, and Ilford North MP, Wes Streeting  unveiled the HIV action plan  which aims to end new transmissions in England by 2030.    

As part of this, opt-out HIV testing in A&Es is picking up infections earlier. E ach week in our hospitals around 1,800 patients are tested.  

Between September 2024 and September 2025, we diagnosed 19 people who were then referred to our sexual health services to get the treatment they needed and receive advice on preventing transmission. 

Data incident  

Like many organisations in recent times, we’ve been targeted by a criminal gang who have stolen some of our data and posted it on the dark web. You can read more about our response on  our  website .  

Best wishes  

Matthew Trainer