Over 500 Join "Human A&E Queue" in King’s Lynn + Please Help Us Reach 12,000 Petition Signatures

Over 500 Join Human A&E Queue in King’s Lynn

More than 500 people gathered at the Tuesday Market Place in King’s Lynn on Saturday to take part in the Human A&E Queue, sending a strong message about the importance of protecting services at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Free Local News covered the event and produced an excellent video capturing the scale and atmosphere of the day, which can be viewed at the end of their online report. You can see pictures from the day and watch the video here.

The event brought together people of all ages from across West Norfolk and beyond, with supporters travelling from Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire to take part. It was one of the largest public demonstrations the town has seen in recent times and showed the strength of feeling surrounding the future of local hospital services.

Throughout the event, people shared their personal experiences, voiced their concerns and stood together to make clear that the current clinical review must not result in reduced services at the QEH. 

Perhaps one of the most striking signs of the depth of feeling came from not just the fact that people stayed in the rain, but some of the older people who attended. Several people in their 70s and 80s told me that this was the first protest they had ever attended. Having never felt compelled to join a public demonstration before, they had come to the Tuesday Market Place because they felt so strongly about the future of their local hospital and the services available to their community.

The turnout demonstrated just how important accessible local emergency and hospital care is to communities across the wider area. For many of those attending, the message was simple: local people want their voices and experiences to be heard as decisions about the future of services are considered.

Thank you to everyone who came along and took part, as well as James Wild MP, Terry Jermy MP, the QEH Community Action Group volunteers, local councillors and NHS staff who attended and supported the event.

Thanks also go to the BBC, the Eastern Daily Press (EDP), Town & Around, Lynn News and Free Local News for reporting on the Human A&E Queue and helping ensure that the strength of local feeling and the community’s message reached a much wider audience.

The campaign stickers also proved extremely popular, helping people show their support and take the message beyond Saturday’s gathering.

With more than 500 people forming the Human A&E Queue, Saturday provided a powerful visual demonstration of community feeling. The people of West Norfolk, joined by neighbours from Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, spoke loudly and clearly: our local hospital services matter, and our community expects its voice to be heard.

Wider national concerns over maternity services

The importance of protecting local services has been brought into even sharper focus by national reports about the future organisation of maternity care in England.

The BBC has reported that NHS bosses believe some smaller maternity units may have to close, amid concerns about staffing, facilities and the increasing complexity of births. Proposals being discussed nationally could see maternity care concentrated in fewer, larger units.

This is particularly relevant to West Norfolk given the importance of maternity services at the QEH and the distances many families already travel to access hospital care.

It is important to stress that these are national proposals and arguments about how maternity services should be organised, rather than a decision that maternity services at the QEH will close. Nevertheless, the debate underlines why communities need to remain engaged in decisions about the future configuration of their local NHS services.

BBC: “NHS bosses say smaller maternity units may have to close” – read the full BBC report here.

Please help us reach 12,000 petition signatures

Finally, please help us keep the momentum going by sharing the Save QEH Life-Saving Services petition with your friends, family, neighbours and colleagues. Our aim is to take the petition past 12,000 signatures over the next month, ahead of the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) meeting at Norfolk County Council on 19 November 2026.

That meeting will be an important moment for the future of our hospital, when the Trust is due to outline the results of its clinical review into what services should be provided at the QEH. Every additional signature helps demonstrate the strength of feeling across West Norfolk and the surrounding communities. If you have already signed, please share the petition and ask others to add their names. Together, we can make sure the community's voice is impossible to ignore when these important decisions are considered.