Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham submits plans for new £58m A&E department

Patients are set to have a modernised, lighter and welcoming emergency department if the plans at the Cosham site are approved by Portsmouth City Council.

It’s hoped the facility will boost patient safety and allow medics and staff to work in a more efficient way.

This includes faster decision making about patients’ care, meaning they will get treatment quicker.

Adults and children will be treated in single rooms to give more privacy – and allow any with Covid-19 symptoms or any respiratory illness to isolate away from others.

Penny Emerit, chief executive at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, recently reported to board members that the ‘large and increasing number of patients’ in the existing A&E is one of her top three concerns at the hospital.

On the new plans, she said: ‘These exciting plans are the result of really strong collaboration between our clinicians, colleagues, partners and architects.

‘Our existing ED is 40 years old and simply wasn’t designed for the number of patients we now see.

‘The new department will give us the capacity we need to meet the needs of our local community and, crucially, enable us to work more efficiently to give all our patients the very best possible care.’

The facility will double the number of adult resuscitation bays from four to eight, with two for children.

A new CT scanner in the department will mean patients needing one will no longer have to leave the unit.

Hospital bosses have long been required to improve the A&E, with the Care Quality Commission taking a close look at the service.

Problems with lengthy ambulance waiting times and the way patients were triaged led, in 2019, to the health watchdog issuing a warning notice to the trust.

But this has now been removed, with the CQC noting ‘the trust has made significant and sustainable improvements against the issues raised in the warning notice’.

Board papers revealed the watchdog added: ‘In addition, the trust has demonstrated that it has built upon initial improvements and is using data to help drive further developments and sustainability.’

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