Critical incident continues at Portsmouth QA hospital
It's been almost two weeks since bosses declared the status
Last updated 9th Jan 2023
Health officials in Portsmouth insist patient safety is their top priority, as the Queen Alexandra hospital in Cosham continues to operate under a critical incident.
It's been almost two weeks since bosses declared the status.
Large numbers are still arriving at A&E, which is continuing to put pressure on bed capacity throughout the hospital.
Dr John Knighton, Medical Director, said “We are now on day nine of running our services in critical incident mode. This means we can prioritise urgent and emergency care, redeploy staff to the areas with the greatest need and treat additional patients in our wards and hospital spaces that we wouldn’t do normally.
"All of our staff are focused and committed to ensuring we can care for everyone who needs us as quickly and safely as possible.
“We would like to thank the local community, patients and their families for their patience and support. Your experience as a patient at PHU may not be up to standards that we aspire to, or you expect from us. However, we would like to reassure you that our clinical standards and patient safety will not be compromised.”
Due to the number of patients who continue to need the hospital, new patients who need hospital care and the large numbers of people arriving at the Emergency Department there is pressure on our bed capacity throughout the hospital.
This means there are delays in admitting patient to our wards as quickly as we would like. A number of actions have been put in place to help including opening up additional beds, setting up a larger discharge lounge for patients ready to return home, redeploying staff to clinical areas and wards and ensuring our Same Day Emergency Care units are operational to care for people.
Liz Rix, Chief Nurse added “Patient safety is our top priority and our staff are doing everything they can to treat everyone as quickly and safely as possible. Volunteers have stepped up to help us feed patients, move patients to wards, and get water and drinks to ensure patients stay hydrated. And we are also working with our partners and teams in the community to avoid hospital admissions and find suitable accommodation and packages of care so people can return back to their home as soon as possible.”
How you can help
Only use the Emergency Department for life-threatening illnesses or injuries. Please use other services such as the Urgent Treatment Centres, NHS 111 online, your GP or pharmacy.
Please help us get patients home when they are ready. A list of key can actions can be found here.