NHS regulator speaks of A&E board's importance

THE organisation in charge of ensuring patient safety and efficient services across England has spoken of the importance of the new A&E Delivery Board at Queen Alexandra Hospital.
The accident and emergency department at Queen Alexandra Hospital in CoshamThe accident and emergency department at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham
The accident and emergency department at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham

NHS Improvement is part of the board, which is aimed at getting health groups to work more closely together in the hope it will improve the emergency department at QA.

It comes as the hospital’s A&E department continues to be one of the worst-performing in the country.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Last month, 74.3 per cent of patients were treated in four hours or less – the national target is 95 per cent.

The hospital was also placed on ‘black alert’ last winter due to its struggle to cope with the crippling demand.

NHS Improvement is one of the members along with clinical commissioning groups, Portsmouth City Council and South Central Ambulance Service.

A spokesman said: ‘The board is a mechanism for all the trusts in the region to get together and facilitate joint working on health and social care in the Portsmouth area.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

‘They are sitting down and organising how healthcare needs will be covered in the busy winter period.

‘It’s about making 
sure everyone is on the same page.

‘It’s an opportunity for joint working across the region.’

NHS Improvement regulates hospital trusts such as Portsmouth NHS Hospitals Trust, which runs QA Hospital. It checks to make sure hospitals are prepared for winter and are working with other organisations.

It offers to support trusts and other NHS-funded care providers with the need to give patients consistently safe, high quality, compassionate care within health systems that are financially sustainable.

By holding providers to account and, where necessary, intervening, it helps the NHS to meet its short-term 
challenges and secure its future.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

As previously reported in The News the A&E Delivery Board has replaced the Systems Resilience Group and clinicians will look at care provided in the area.

Its aim is to get organisations to work closer together and more efficiently to enhance care for patients across the Portsmouth area.