A hospital has closed its emergency department and declared a major incident due to an “unexpected serious loss of power”.
Patients have been warned the outage at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, Hampshire, means some appointments may be cancelled.
Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust has told those with appointments to attend unless they have been contacted and instructed otherwise, either directly or via the hospital’s website or social media.
Phone lines and switchboards have been affected, meaning people are unable to call into or receive calls from the hospital.
The trust said in a statement that the “hospital is safe” and staff are “working hard to continue providing care for patients already with us”.
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However, the site will not be receiving any new patients in its emergency department.
The trust said in its statement: “As a result of an unexpected serious loss of power, Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust has declared a major incident at Queen Alexandra Hospital.
“Patients with a serious medical condition must phone NHS 111 or 999 in an emergency and not attend the QA Hospital Emergency Department.”
On-site teams are working to “restore power as soon as possible”, the trust added.
