Major incident at Southampton Hospital Power cut.

[HelenaDove]

www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/17261042.live-major-incident-declared-at-southampton-hospital-after-power-black-out/?ref=appshr

www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1051471/Southampton-hospitals-major-incident

A spokesman for University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust said all patients were safe but all non-urgent activity had been cancelled. He said: "University Hospital Southampton has suffered a major power cut and has declared a major incident. All patients in Southampton General and the Princess Anne hospitals are safe. "All non-urgent activity is cancelled at present. Please do not attend the hospital for non-urgent care such as outpatients, routine X-rays or blood tests

"We are asking relatives not to visit the UHS until further notice. Staff are busy caring at present and we would further ask you not to call switchboard if possible.

"The emergency department is closed for all except urgent emergencies.

"We will keep you informed as the day goes on and are grateful for your support at present and apologise to those whose care is now delayed."

Firefighters deal with a small blaze in a rear room.

Hampshire Fire and Rescue spokesman, Simon Carr, said: "We were called to Southampton General Hospital at 08:41.

"Seven engines and support vehicles were on the scene. The incident was a fire in an electrical room caused by an overloaded inverter.

"Two sets of breathing apparatus, two jets and fire extinguishers were used."

One person, who wished not to be named, said: "The place is in complete darkness, there are no lights and there is no power.

"The backup generators haven't started and people are walking around with torches." Another person said: "There is a major incident going on at the Southampton General Hospital and there is no power and the backup generators have failed to start.

"There are hardly any lights on."

More to follow.

i wonder how long NHS computers take to reboot

Are you the poster who was worried about what happens if there's a power cut in Essex while you're getting your hair done?

Weren't you the poster wondering about the legal implications of a powercut happening during your hairdressing appointment?

I'm sure the hospital will survive a small electrical fire.

Goodness me, you are really worried about power cuts aren’t you?

This one was caused by a fire though, not the fault of the electrical supplier.

I mean struggling to work out how this can possibly be classed as a 'major incident' and why it warrants a thread dedicated to it?

Hospitals have emergency generators for stuff like this.

What a strange thread.

Its a quote Im not the one calling it a major incident.

But why are you posting it here?

But what about the HAIRDRYERS?!!!

@FaceLikeAPairofTits Strange how you only understand anxiety when its you yourself experiencing it. I have the odd anxiety dream too.

When a hospital declares a major incident, it only means they'd rather people didn't make more work for them at a tricky time.

It's not a major disaster.

The OP seems to have a thing about power cuts

Well this was this morning and all is coming back online now ...
Apparently it was declared a major incident as the backup generators couldn't run either.

The definition of a major incident is something which requires special plans to be put in place. So yes, running on backup generators for hours is technically a major incident & all non urgent cases postponed to guarantee power to the most critical areas

A hospital near me closed last week after a major incident and I shared it on fb but didn’t even consider posting it here as it didn’t have any affect on 99.99999% of posters.

It sounds like the generators haven’t kicked in, which makes it a pretty major issue. No lifts, no way to communicate with each other, ventilators potentially relying on shirt battery times. Places like theatre, which usually have no windows, will be completely dark. Anaesthetic machines will not function etc etc. It’s happened to me once, and it was complete carnage.

Rumours are that the generators failed too.

All a bit confusing as the hospital have been quoted as saying there wasn't a fire, but the fire brigade are saying there was a fire

Neighbouring hospitals in the Hampshire trust have also declared major incidents and cancelled non-urgent appointments to offer the back up to Southampton.

No idea why it needs a thread dedicated to it though

@EmbraRocks But what about the anorak

Why not have a thread? There are usually threads for major incidents. People living in the area might need to know

Shocking news, cut it out OP - you've generated enough of it recently.....

My window slammed shut and made me jump. Is that enough for me to start a thread?

It’s a power cut in a hospital. The op has posted in on the back of her earlier daft post about power cuts and I think she was wanting to use this as an example of how terrible the power company are.

They might have called it a major incident for operational reasons but it’s not a big deal and local people will be well aware of it.

It's made the BBC

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-46371271

And yes, I think repeating the request to stay away unless you have truly urgent medical need it worth it.

There are plenty of threads about items which make the news. And knowing how resilient public services are is very much in the public interest.

To be fair, if the back up generators did not kick in (which is bloody unusual), then yes, it is a little bit scary. Some stuff is pretty sortable. It happened in daylight, so most areas would have some light. They'll have a back up supply of walkie talkies for communications. And there will be back up torches. When power fails, locked doors default to open. Most equipment will have back up batteries for a short time. Labs/results/xrays would be screwed until back up. The biggest worries would be patients dependent upon ventilatory support, though there would be enough staff to hand ventilate if need be. And any patients in surgery: there are enough case reports out there of closing by torchlight, but not easy.

But they'll have coped. The staff will have coped. Because that is what NHS staff do. They cope with inadequate resources, and inadequate staffing. They cope with winter crises and terrorist atrocities. They cope with being cut off by floods and snow. They cope with cyber attacks and with health secretaries dedicated to their destruction. They will have done what they always do in the worst crises: kept buggering on.

It's the lack of backup generators that is important. That's going to interfere with essential treatment and be severely dangerous for life support etc.

I would class that as a major incident. theres lots of machinery in a hospital that only has limited battery times and would be a threat to a patients life if they had no power supply

And the hospital confirmed everyone was safe.