Critical Incident at QA Hospital resolved following 'serious power outage'

The power loss lead to the closure of the Accident & Emergency department and it significantly impacted the switchboard and phone lines. The Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU) made the decision not to accept any new patients to the A&E department and declare a major incident.

At the time a spokesperson confirmed that some services would be affected by the power outage as the hospital was not able to recieve or make any calls. The major incident was removed and a critical incident remained in place this afternoon as the PHU confirmed that teh power had been restored.

Investigations are now underway to discover the cause of the outage and the electrical supply has been tested for resilience and safety. Power has also been restored to IT, phone, and bleep systems.

A PHU spokesperson has confirmed that the internal critical incident has officially been removed. The spokesperson said: “We will continue to monitor the site closely over the coming days and have checks in place to ensure that our resilience is maintained.

“We apologise to anyone who was affected by this incident and are sorry for any disruption you have faced.

“While our Emergency Department is open for people with life threatening injuries and illnesses, our services remain busy so if you could safely be seen at a more appropriate service for your needs or are unsure where to go, please contact NHS 111 online for support and advice.

“We would like to thank everyone involved for their quick response to the incident, as well as the support we have received from our local communities and system partners while we worked to restore services safely.”

For more information about the QA Hospital power outage, click here.