Portsmouth University Hospitals NHS Trust sees sixth longest ambulance handover delays in England as QA Hospital declares critical incident

Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust – based at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham – was ranked sixth in a list of more than 100 NHS trusts showing the proportion of ambulance patients waiting at hospitals in England last week for more than 30 minutes and over 60 minutes before being handed to A&E teams.

Earlier this week, QA declared a critical incident, after announcing that the hospital and emergency department were full with patients. When a hospital declares a critical incident, it means that the hospital staff are being put under extreme pressure due to an increase in patients.

NOW READ: Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham declares critical incident

Top of the list was University Hospitals Plymouth, followed by Royal Cornwall Hospitals, Royal United Hospitals Bath, East and North Hertfordshire, Gloucestershire Hospitals and Portsmouth Hospitals University. In a total of 652 handovers at Portsmouth Hospitals University (where time was known), 421 were over 30 minutes – accounting for 65 per cent – while 305 – or 47 per cent – saw patients waiting for more than an hour.

The smallest trusts – with fewer than 50 arrivals in the week ending December 10 – were excluded from the data, which was published by NHS England.

After declaring the critical incident, Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust released a statement which said: ““We are seeing high numbers of unwell people through our Emergency Department and the hospital is full of patients needing our care. This means we are seeing delays for both patients arriving by ambulance and those walking into ED, that are much longer than our patients would expect. This is not acceptable, and we apologise to our patients and community.

Our emergency services remain open and we will still be here for people who have life threatening injuries and illnesses, but there will be long waits for other injuries and conditions. Everyone who attends the Emergency Department but doesn’t need to be treated there will be redirected to an alternative service.

"We are working closely with our partners across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight who are also taking actions to provide extra capacity and support in their services."