Sick waiting in A&E while beds lie empty

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Ambulance crews are queuing to get into Queen's Hospital in the latest example of the pressure on London casualty departments. Managers at the flagship private finance initiative hospital in Romford have failed to open the two wards even though some patientswait for more than an hour.

Paramedics said the situation was "madness" and campaigners accused the cash-strapped trust of keeping wards closed to save money. It comes after it was revealed that demand on A&E departments has hit record levels. Over Christmas the Princess Royal in Bromley was so busy it was forced to divert patients to Queen Mary's Sidcup. But the situation at Queen's has angered paramedics because they say the problem could be eased by opening the two spare wards.

Critics of the Government's private finance initiative claim the huge yearly costs are to blame. Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust, which runs Queen's Hospital, is facing a £40 million deficit yet pays a £40 million a year "mortgage".

Geoff Martin, of London Health Emergency, said: "Queens Hospital is under massive pressure from emergency patient demand which makes a nonsense of their policy of keeping two wards mothballed. We have no doubt that the real issue is money."

A hospital spokesman said the wards were not kept closed to save money but because it could not find enough doctors and nurses to staff them.