We know how important it is for patients and families to be able to see visitors. Please help us keep our patients and staff as safe as possible by checking the guidance below before you visiting.
Read more on visiting times...
We recognise the impact that a long stay in hospital can have on families and the importance of maintaining strong communication. Our ward staff are keeping in touch with patients’ next of kin directly and our Voluntary Services team can help pass on personal messages from family and friends.
After suspending visiting earlier in the year, we are now able to offer limited visiting to some wards at the discretion of the nurse in-charge.”
Read more on visiting times...
We recognise the impact that a long stay in hospital can have on families and the importance of maintaining strong communication. Our ward staff are keeping in touch with patients’ next of kin directly and our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) can help pass on personal messages from family and friends.
The Queen Alexandra Hospital is located just on the hill slopes of Portsdown Hill overlooking Portsmouth. It is conveniently situated for both the M27 and A3M.
Family members and carers play an important role in supporting patients during an episode of ill health. We are committed to the active involvement of family members, friends and carers during a hospital stay. Family members and carers play an important role in supporting patients during an episode of ill health.
More information on visiting hospital for an appointment.
If you've had experience of using our services and would like to make a comment then please contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS). Your views are very important to us and we would like to hear where you think improvements are needed or where things have gone so well that you would like to share your thanks or gratitude with the staff involved. When things have not gone so well then you can be sure that we want to hear from you, so please get in touch with PALS.
Our Strategy – Working Together, Improving Together
Our strategy sets out our vision, values, strategic aims and most importantly, how we will deliver against these ambitions for our patients, communities, and people in the future.
It is not just a document, it is for and about everyone at PHU, building on what we have achieved with a renewed focus on continuous improvement and the need to continue to work together and improve together to achieve our goals.
A full copy of the strategy can be downloaded here.
For more information, please visit our strategy webpage.
There are lots of opportunities for you to get involved with the Trust, from volunteering to attending our public meetings, our Annual General Meeting or our hospital open day which is held every year.
We welcome and value your feedback and use the views you share with us in a number of ways to learn and make improvements as well as sharing best practice. Feedback can be provided in a number of ways.
Date: 22 April 2021
“Go get checked” is the message from 45-year-old John Arnell, a charge nurse at Queen Alexandra Hospital, who worked right through the COVID-19 pandemic caring for sick and vulnerable patients while battling his own illness of stage 3 bowel cancer.
John, from Copnor, works on G4 Neuro Rehab Ward where his team rehabilitate patients who have been extremely unwell with COVID-19. “It was a really busy period at the hospital so it was all hands on deck,” John says. “I felt really tired all the time, with a slight cramping feeling in my side, but I just put it down to being busy on the ward.”
It wasn’t until John was referred to the Maxillofacial Department to have a lump removed, his anaesthetist realised John’s iron levels were extremely low so contacted his GP for further tests. From that point, it was a rollercoaster of a journey for John and his family where he would later find out that he had stage 3 bowel cancer.
John notes: “After numerous tests with my GP, I was referred back to the hospital where I was put on the two-week cancer wait list, which is when they realised I had bowel cancer.
“I just cried. It was such a shock. I was trying to comfort my partner while taking in the news that I had cancer.”
John says he can’t praise the service and hospital colleagues enough, from the compassionate care to the speed of treatment, it was second to none. “I know people are worried about coming into hospital but it is vitally important to get checked out if you are concerned,” explains John. “I just put my fatigue down to being busy at work, but I should’ve noticed something wasn’t right and the care I have received throughout the whole process has been fantastic.”
John eventually had the tumour removed on 22 March by consultant surgeon, Jim Khan. Using robotic surgery, John was in and out of hospital within the space of a few days. “I’m now back at home recovering, with fantastic after care and support,” John adds. “While I recover from my surgery, I have been referred to the oncology department where I wait for my first round of chemotherapy.”
Being a nurse himself and now being on the other end of the care, John says this journey has really opened his eyes and to not take life for granted. He says: “You really don’t know what can happen in life, you have to enjoy it and make things happen. I have changed my lifestyle drastically by stopping smoking and I am going to keep myself much fitter. I am looking forward to the future with my family, all thanks to the swift actions from the clinical teams.”
