West Middlesex University Hospital to receive winter funding

The Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, has this week announced that NHS England is to receive £250 million funding to help address the expected surge in patients attending A&E departments over the winter period and the anticipated increase in admissions.

West Middlesex University Hospital is set to benefit from a share of £2.3 million of this funding on behalf of the local community. The funding will be shared with its community health and social care partners.

Chief Executive Dame Jacqueline Docherty said: “Over the past few years we have carried out a lot of work in conjunction with our local healthcare partners to improve services for patients attending A&E. Our A&E department is currently in the top five in London for waiting times and we want to maintain this performance throughout the busy winter period. This additional funding will be used to better manage surges in demand, ensuring that we provide safe and high quality care consistently even at the busiest times.”

Dr Nicola Burbidge, Chair of Hounslow Clinical Commissioning Group, added: “This is good news for local people and local health and social care services as the extra funding will help us to ensure that all services are robust and able to cope with the expected increase in demand over the winter period.”