10 September 2025

Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU) is celebrating 25 years of ALERT ® (Acute Life-threatening Events Recognition and Treatment) training, designed to improve the quality of care and outcomes for critically ill patients in hospital. In just over two decades the multi-professional course has equipped over 200,000 healthcare professionals worldwide with the skills to recognise patient deterioration and how to act appropriately.

Pippa Davies, ALERT Course Lead at PHU said: “As the central ALERT® training hub, our team at PHU is proud to provide high quality education locally and support centres across the UK and internationally.

“ALERT ® empowers staff to act confidently, escalate concerns early and involve expert colleagues to help ensure timely interventions and better patient outcomes.

“A key benefit of the course is its practical element, where course attendees assess a deteriorating patient using the ABCDE approach and practice structured handovers using the NHS communication tool SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation), which provides a clear and systematic framework for communicating vital patient information.”

The course combines real patient studies, tabletop workshops and practical assessments to teach critical skills that ultimately improve patient outcomes.

Developed at PHU, ALERT ® takes a structured, systematic approach to identifying at-risk patients and ensuring appropriate escalation of care.

The success of the course has led to the development of a wide range of courses for both registered and non-registered healthcare workers including ward staff, doctors, physiotherapists, and dentists.

ALERT® is now delivered in more than 100 centres across the UK, Ireland and internationally and is used in hospitals, hospices, and universities.

To find out more about ALERT® and upcoming courses, visit: ALERT® :: Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust