Ops cancelled as power cut hits hospital

Operations had to be cancelled after a power failure at Perth Royal Infirmary.

On Saturday at around 10pm PRI was plunged into darkness when the main power supply cut out, causing emergencies to be temporarily diverted to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.

NHS Tayside confirmed a number of operations had to be postponed as a result on Monday and Tuesday.

Health bosses met at the beginning of this week to look into the issue and found a fault with the hospital’s electrical system, which needed a specialist to repair.

Until the mains power supply was fixed PRI needed to rely on their back-up generator.

A spokesperson for NHS Tayside said: “Perth Royal Infirmary was affected by an issue with SSE’s mains power supply in the Perth area at around 10pm on Saturday, which saw our electrical supply temporarily disrupted in some areas of the hospital.

“A team of engineers from NHS Tayside and SSE were on-site immediately and managed to restore power to these areas.

“However the disruption has identified an issue with part of our electrical system which requires a specialist repair.

“The clinical team decided to postpone a number of elective procedures until the necessary repairs could be carried out.”

Professor Peter Stonebridge, operational medical director at NHS Tayside, said: “We would like to apologise to any patients affected.

“However, patient safety is always our first priority and we hope people would understand why our clinicians have had to make this decision.

“We have contacted patients directly and are working to reschedule their procedures as soon as possible.

“We would wish to thank our staff for their professionalism and continuing excellent work to minimise impact on services for our patients during this period.”

The mains electrical supply was fixed on Tuesday evening and services at PRI returned to normal on Wednesday.