- NHS hospital
Queen Alexandra Hospital
Report from 19 March 2025 assessment
Contents
Ratings - Urgent and emergency services
Our view of the service
Urgent and Emergency Care Services at Queen Alexandra Hospital are provided by Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust. We carried out an unannounced assessment of urgent and emergency care (UEC) services at Queen Alexandra Hospital on 6, 7, & 10 May 2025. We carried out this inspection in response to concerns we received around the service. The assessment focused on all quality statements under the safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well led domains.
The inspection team comprised of CQC Inspectors, Specialist Advisors, an Expert by Experience and a Clinical Fellow. We spoke with over 50 members of staff and senior leaders. We also carried out remote interviews with staff, leaders and specialist teams. We requested evidence from the service which was provided by the trust between 30th May- 17th July 2025.
We rated the service as requires improvement. The service had made some improvements since the previous inspection. However, we found 5 breaches of the regulations in relation to premises and equipment (waiting rooms and escalation areas), staffing (training), person centred care (learning disability), and good governance (contemporaneous records and identifying and assessing risks).
Premises were not always suitable or equipped for the purpose they were being used for. The service had not adequately ensured their employees received learning disability and autism training appropriate to their role. Patients with a Learning Disability and/or Autism did not have access to resources and specialist input to support their care and treatment. There were not always safe and effective systems to identify and assess risks to the health, safety and welfare of people who used the service. Staff did not accurately, complete contemporaneous records in respect of each patient.
People's experience of this service
We spoke with over 50 patients and their loved ones throughout our assessment of the service. We used feedback from Experts by Experience in our assessment evidence. We also reviewed patient feedback, Friends and Family test scoring, and CQC national patient survey data. Patients spoke to the assessment team warmly; about all staff they were treated by and how they valued them. However, while people we spoke with expressed, they were happy with their care, our assessment found care did not meet the expected standards. There were inequalities in the way care was provided for some patients.