QA Hospital no longer in bottom 10 for four-hour A&E target

This comes despite figures showing the Cosham hospital failed to see, treat or discharge fewer people within four hours in December than previous in months.

Data from NHS England released yesterday showed Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs QA, only met the government-set target for 66.2 per cent of A&E admissions in December.

Trusts should be reaching 95 per cent but only three organisations reached this number.

In November, the figure for QA Hospital was 68.7 per cent and in October it was higher at 69.3 per cent.

The trust is now the 12th worst in the country when ranked on this category.

The data also showed the number of attendances at the emergency department dropped in December.

In total, 9,081 attended which is 192 fewer admissions compared to November.

A spokeswoman from Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust said: ‘Like many hospitals around the country, our emergency department has been exceptionally busy over the last three months – particularly around the festive period, when the number of patients and severity of illness increased significantly compared to previous years.

‘We have also seen increasing numbers of frail and elderly patients requiring admission, which has placed added pressure on our services. We would ask patients to think carefully about their urgent care needs.

‘The emergency department is for major emergencies such as severe chest pain, breathing difficulties, serious accidents and severe bleeding.’

She added: ‘We are working hard with NHS partners to reduce the number of patients that do not need to be in an acute bed for their continuing health or social care, to enable us to safely discharge patients and ensure we have more space for our emergency admissions.’

The average four-hour A&E target dropped nationally from 82.7 per cent for November to 79.3 per cent in December.