Ward stays open as public and staff present pleas to Board

1 December. Members of the public and staff attended the Trust Board meeting on 1 December to call for Conifer Ward to be kept open. The staff side unions presented a letter to the Board members. One man from Walthamstow related how a few years ago his mother had been cared for in Conifer and received excellent care from the staff, but he remembered the 12 hour wait in A&E. A woman from Chingford said, "10 years ago I was taken to A&E on a Friday night with a broken collar bone. As I was taken down the corridor lined with patients lying on trolleys I had the only panic attack in my life with the thought of being left there for hours. I dread a return to those bad old days."

The Board told us they had decided now not to close Conifer because with the pressures on the hospital the beds were needed. They are to keep it open as a ward taking patients from different specialisms, and staff will get additional training. We understand at this point it will be opened as a '4 day' ward during the week.