QA Hospital apologises to patients who have had to wait "longer than usual" at Emergency Department as service remains under pressure

There have been a number of reports of long delays for patients visiting Queen Alexandra Hospital’s emergency department in the past week. The delays come as norovirus cases start to reduce in the hospital but staff are still asking for people to not visit if they have symptoms.

The News was contacted from the family of an 81-year-old woman who had been waiting in the Emergency Department for over 22 hours. Unable to get an appointment with her GP she was advised to go to the Emergency Department but with no beds available she was forced to wait in the waiting area for nearly 24 hours.

A number of other patients have taken to social media to complain about the wait times, with some waiting for as long as 30 hours to be seen with staff run off their feet. Comments on social media show that this has been an issue many people have faced since the turn of the year.

The new Emergency Department opened at the end of November and it has faced a challenging winter with high numbers of flu patients being admitted. Two weeks ago the hospital was forced to close bays in wards due to rising norovirus cases.

While norovirus cases are going down it is still putting pressure on services. QA have apologised to patients who have had to wait longer than expected.

Liz Rix, chief nurse, Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust said: “Our hospital is very busy. Our local community can support us by only coming to the Emergency Department if it is an emergency. Whilst we are seeing a reduction in norovirus cases, we continue to ask people to not visit the hospital if they are experiencing diarrhoea and vomiting.

“We apologise to anyone who has had to wait longer than usual in our Emergency Department.”

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