Hospital power cut delays operations

A hospital was forced to reschedule operations after a power cut of more than seven hours.

Wishaw General in North Lanarkshire experiencedthe“powerinterruption” yesterday morning at about 8:45am and was left without mains power until 4pm. The power outage meant one emergency patient was re-directed to Hairmyres Hospital and IT systems were also affected.

The hospital was powered by back-up genera- tors until mains power was restored.

NHS Lanarkshire chief executive Calum Campbell said: “In the interest of patient safety and as a precautionary measure, we took the decision to reschedule a small number of surgical procedures based on clinical priority.

“The power interruption impacted on our diagnostic and IT systems, which have now been fully restored.

“As a result, some outpatient clinics have been affected and one emergency patient was redirected to Hairmyres Hospital. This is in line with our business and emergency continuity plans which worked.”