Queen Alexandra Hospital inspectors stopped patients colliding

Patients sometimes had to wait as long as 14 hours to be admitted to a ward, inspectors said

Inspectors had to intervene to stop two patients on trolleys in a corridor colliding at a "severely overcrowded" A&E, a report has revealed.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited Portsmouth's Queen Alexandra Hospital and gave the trust a "requires improvement" rating.

Another patient with breathing difficulties had to be resuscitated after a 25-minute wait on a trolley.

After notices were issued inspectors said improvements had been made.

Patients with "a suspected broken hip, chest pain and an infectious disease" were subjected to long waits.

The report said: "One patient with a head injury got up, unobserved, to leave the department and an inspector had to prevent him from falling and colliding with another elderly patient on a trolley."

'High risk'

During the inspection, a patient who had previously had a heart attack was brought in by ambulance with breathing difficulties.

After waiting 25 minutes for an assessment they were rushed to the resuscitation room when their condition deteriorated.

Patients sometimes had to wait as long as 14 hours to be admitted to a ward, inspectors said.

The national average wait between being brought to hospital by ambulance and an initial assessment is 15 minutes.

An average of 25 minutes was recorded at the Queen Alexandra.

Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust was rated as "outstanding" in relation to being caring and effective but needed to improve providing "safe, responsive and well-led services".

CQC chief Prof Sir Mike Richards said: "We saw severe overcrowding in the accident and emergency department which meant that some patients with serious conditions had waited over an hour to be assessed.

"There was a high risk of their condition deteriorating during this time."