Harlow: Princess Alexandra Hospital replacement will have bigger A&E

The emergency department at Princess Alexandra Hospital, in Harlow, Essex, has been rated inadequate

A hospital's emergency department rated "inadequate" by a health watchdog will be bigger when new premises are built.

The replacement for the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, will have 49 extra assessment beds in the emergency department, a council meeting heard.

It will be built in Sheering, about five miles (8km) away.

A recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) report told the hospital that medical services needed to improve.

The CQC said inspectors had to intervene after seeing two deteriorating patients waiting in a corridor after being brought to the emergency department by ambulance.

The trust has been rated as "requires improvement" overall.

At the Epping Forest District Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting, NHS Chiefs said the new build would have 76 assessment beds in the emergency department compared with 27 in the current building.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the new hospital would also include overnight accommodation for doctors.

Michael Meredith, director of strategy and estates at the hospital, said: "We can add another 20% of beds without having any impact on the way the hospital runs or works.

"That would require more capital at a later date, but again our balance is about getting enough money now to get funded."

Stephanie Lawton, chief operating officer, said if the CQC visited the hospital now it would see "our teams providing the safest, most high-quality care that they can possibly provide under the circumstances of a busy and pressurised emergency department and those pressures have continued since the CQC came to visit us".

Further work on the building would start when the government had finished a "design conversion review", the meeting heard.