Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust 2.94

The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust serves a population of 258,000 & provides healthcare services to the communities of Harlow and the surrounding areas. It runs Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, England. It is a 501 bedded District General Hospital providing a comprehensive range of acute and specialist services to a local population of 258,000 people. It has been led since May 2017 by Alan Burns (Chairman) and Lance McCarthy (Chief Executive). It has a hospital radio station, Harlow Hospital Radio.In addition to Princess Alexandra Hospital, the trust provides services from St. Margaret's Hospital and Herts & Essex Hospital, Bishops Stortford.PerformanceThe Trust predicts a deficit of £16.6m in 2013-14. It abandoned plans to become a Foundation Trust in April 2015 and plans to become an integrated care organisation, investigating both “horizontal” and “vertical” integration with other health bodies.The trust was one of 26 responsible for half of the national growth in patients waiting more than four hours in accident and emergency over the 2014/5 winter. There were 2% fewer attendances in 2014-15 than in 2013-14, but the number of patients breaching the four-hour target more than double to 12,000.In October 2015 the trust announced that it was closing 4 beds on each ward, and was unable to see, treat, admit or discharge even 90% of patients within the accident and emergency four-hour target. The Chair of the trust said it was ‘becoming unviable clinically". It expects a deficit of £28.6m in 2015/6. In the last quarter of 2015 it had one of the worst performances of any hospital in England against the four hour waiting target.