Live incident updates - TEST
Live reporting
Edited by the Communications and Engagement team
Key updates
- Critical incident declared - Queen's Hospital
- Update from Peter Hunt, acting chief executive of Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT)
- Q&A Page — If you have any questions regarding today's announcement
17:13
Matthew Trainer: Critical incident update
We have declared a critical internal incident at Queen's Hospital due to bed pressures across the site.
We’ve been in it since Tuesday. We don’t put these on the website because it’s about us changing how we work, not asking patients to do something different.
Read the full update here
Watch footage of Matthew Trainer taking questions from the media
17:10
The NHS is broken: Health and Social Care Secretary statement
When we said during the election campaign that the NHS was going through the biggest crisis in its history, we meant it.
When we said that patients are being failed on a daily basis, it wasn’t political rhetoric, but the daily reality faced by millions.
Previous governments have not been willing to admit these simple facts. But in order to cure an illness, you must first diagnose it.
This government will be honest about the challenges facing our country, and serious about tackling them.
From today, the policy of this department is that the NHS is broken.
That is the experience of patients who are not receiving the care they deserve, and of the staff working in the NHS who can see that - despite giving their best - this is not good enough.
When I was diagnosed with kidney cancer, the NHS saved my life.
Today, I can begin to repay that debt, by saving our NHS.
I have just spoken over the phone with the BMA junior doctors committee, and I can announce that talks to end their industrial action will begin next week.
We promised during the campaign that we would begin negotiations as a matter of urgency, and that is what we are doing.
17:00
Mahboob Khan: Update posted to X
16:45
Q&A Page
If anyone has any concerns regarding today's announcement, we have a dedicated questions and answers page which you can access here:.
16:30
Queen's Hospital, Romford 'Critical incident' declared
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust have declared a critical incident to protect patient safety due to significant pressures on services.
There is currently significant demand for all services with hospitals seeing a high number of patients arriving at emergency departments. Our staff are doing everything in their power to care for patients in a safe and timely way, but the high number of people needing care and the reduction in staffing levels mean there are very long waits in our A&E and for admission to our wards.