NHS trusts covering Portsmouth area report 840 serious incidents

More than 800 serious incidents were reported in a year by health trusts covering Portsmouth and surrounding areas

Figures from Blackwater Law revealed Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust (PHT), Solent NHS Trust and Southern Health NHS Trust had 840 reports between them for 2016/17.

A serious incident includes avoidable or unexpected injury or serious harm; avoidable or unexpected death; abuse; incidents leading to widespread public concern or that affect a trust’s ability to provide care to an acceptable level.

All three trusts said in comments they encourage staff to be open and transparent and to report any issues relating to concerns over care within their organisations.

PHT, which runs Queen Alexandra Hospital, in Cosham, had the highest number in the south of 389.

The trust said two-thirds of its serious incidents were a breach of patients waiting on trolleys for more than 12 hours in the emergency department.

Theresa Murphy, director of nursing, said: ‘All serious incidents have a full root cause analysis, to ensure that the lessons learned from the serious incidents are embedded in practice.

‘Learning from incidents and improving patient safety remains our highest priority.’

Southern Health, which provides mental health services and community care across the south including in Fareham, Gosport and Havant, had 230 serious incidents.

Julie Dawes, director of nursing and allied health professionals, said: ‘The safety of our patients is paramount and we take seriously any incident which may result in harm.

‘All serious incidents are investigated and acted upon to help us learn and improve.

‘A significant proportion of serious incidents relate to frail, elderly people who have a fall or develop a pressure sore in our care - and we are actively working to reduce these.

‘In recent years we have made major developments to the way we report and investigate incidents.’

Solent NHS Trust, which provides community care and mental health care in Portsmouth and Southampton, had 221 breaches.

Chief nurse Jackie Ardley said; ‘All serious incidents will have been reviewed and, where indicated, more detailed investigations completed so that learning and improvements are made.’

South Central Ambulance Service had reports of seven serious incidents.