From newborn babies to knee replacements (completed by robotic surgery), via nurses doing their best to care for patients in our A&E corridors – we showed BBC London viewers an insight into our hospitals for a special report on Thursday 22 January.

It was part of a BBC-wide NHS Day, where reporters across the country visited a range of NHS services. We invited London reporter Karl Mercer into both of our hospitals to see just some of what our teams do.

In our Elective Surgical Hub at King George Hospital, they were able to see patient Stuart Ayris undergo a knee replacement (below) using robotic surgery. They met baby Landon and his delighted parents, Holly Chilvers and Sonny Butler (pictured top), on our Birth Centre at Queen’s Hospital, just hours after his birth.

And three years after we first invited BBC London into A&E at Queen’s Hospital to see the reality of corridor care, they could see how our nurse continue to do their best for our patients on our corridors.

(Above, Karl speaks to A&E nurse Myrtle Adjei about her experience caring for patients on our corridors.)

Demand has continued to grow since their initial visit in January 2023, we now see 150 additional patients every day at Queen’s A&E.

During a live broadcast on Thursday (22 January), they spoke to our Chief Executive, Matthew Trainer (pictured below speaking to Karl).

He said:

It’s not acceptable for any of our patients to be cared for in a corridor, it’s not what the staff want, and it’s not what any of us would want for our own families. It’s upsetting to see and we’ve faced it more in the last few years as our hospitals have got more and more busy.

Queen’s Hospital was built for 325 A&E patients a day, on 1 December just gone we had more than 800 people through, an all time record. We’re seeing numbers grow year on year. This part of London has one of the highest populations of over 65s and the lowest number of GPs.

The corridor scenes are extremely distressing but they are by no means the full story of what hospitals like ours do day in day out.

Matthew also spoke about our campaign to secure £35million to transform the A&E.

Health Secretary and Ilford North MP Wes Streeting was interviewed and asked about our funding bid by the BBC.

He said:

I’m in this position as Health Secretary where, because it’s my local trust, I am barred from making decisions because people watching might understand that I might be tempted to fund my own local services at the expense of others.

So, I’m lobbying for it hard. I think it’s a good case for A&E investment. I’ve seen the challenges.

Ministers in the Department of Health and Social Care are aware of that, as are NHS leaders. So, I’m pushing hard for that investment.

Read more on the BBC website.