Queen Alexandra Hospital: Critical incident stood down in Portsmouth after patient influx strains services

Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham had been under the emergency measures since January 3 amid the junior doctors strike. Other hospitals were also affected. High numbers of Norovirus, Measles, Flu and Covid-19 cases resulted in a large influx of patients.

Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU).said on its website that the critical incident was halted "thanks to the hard work" of staff. They added: "We made the decision to declare a critical incident because together with health and social care partners we needed to take immediate action to reduce the risk to emergency service provision, due to the high levels of occupancy and demand across our services and the wider health and care system.

"To support the safe delivery of care going forward, we have agreed a commitment from all of us across the Portsmouth and South East Hampshire health and care system to explore new ways of working to provide the best care for our patients and support our staff. Whilst this is a positive step, our hospital is still incredibly busy and we are seeing a lot of patients coming to the Emergency Department."

Over 100 more patients than normal visited Queen Alexandra Hospital on January 29. PHU said this put services "under further pressures"." Our teams are working incredibly hard to minimise disruption, but we know that unfortunately some patients have had to wait longer than we like or had procedures/appointments postponed, so apologise to anyone affected by this," the NHS trust added.

"Thank you to our partners and community for your continued support during this time and to our staff for their ongoing dedication to our patients." The trust advised patients to only use the emergency department "if they have a life-threatening injury or illness". Patients are advised to use NHS 111 online or visit their local pharmacy where appropriate.