Publish date: 1 October 2025
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published its findings following inspections of two services at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust’s (PHU) Queen Alexandra Hospital.
We are pleased to share that the overall rating for PHU remains Good with medical care (including older people’s care) rated as Good across all areas, and urgent and emergency services rated Good across the effective and well-led domains, and requires improvement overall.
Penny Emerit, Chief Executive, said, “We welcome the CQC’s recent inspection and the recognition of improvement. We know there is more to be done and intend to build on the progress to date.
“Our medical care teams have worked very hard to maintain their Good rating and it is fantastic to see inspectors highlight a culture of listening, learning and trust with continuous improvement being embedded into the service. The service has embraced our quality improvement approach, Delivering Excellence. This report highlights examples of where our teams are using that approach to make improvements that have a positive impact for our patients, including improvements in early diagnoses of lung cancer and workstreams supporting flow within the hospital by providing enhanced support on inpatient wards that improve the discharge process.
“We have made significant changes to our urgent care pathways, in particular over the last year with the opening of our new emergency department in November 2024, and it is pleasing that the CQC recognised the considerable improvement in ambulance handover times. But we know that there is still more to be done and we agree with CQC that flow remains a challenge that creates a poor experience for some people.
“Providing a safe and positive experience for our patients and supporting our staff, who were found to be kind and considerate, is a priority for us. We are committed to working together with our patients, colleagues and health and care partners to continue to improve and address the themes identified in this report.”
Inspectors visited in May 2025 to inspect urgent and emergency services, as well as medical care including older person’s medicine.