East and North Herts cuts children's A&E hours due to staffing problems

In his report to the March board meeting, trust chief executive Nick Carver said: “Changes have been made to times when the children’s A&E and assessment unit are open at the Queen Elizabeth II (QEII) hospital. From Monday, 28 February, the closing time is at 8.00pm daily, instead of 11.00pm.

“The service will reopen every morning at 8.00am, instead of 7.30am. Outside of these hours, all children needing to attend a specialist children’s emergency service, whether by ambulance or as a walk-in, will need to go the 24/7 service based at the Lister hospital in Stevenage, or to another nearby hospital if that is considered the preferred option.”

He added that: “Specific problems with recruiting sufficient specialist paediatric doctors, as well as children’s nurses, to maintain clinically safe rotas became apparent during January 2011.”