HOSPITALS across Hampshire were thrown into “absolute chaos” yesterday morning when a major incident was declared.

Appointments and operations were cancelled at Southampton general hospital after a power cut plunged wards into darkness at around 6am.

Two hours later patients were evacuated – before firefighters were called at 8.41am to a fire in the north block.

Hospital chiefs maintained there was no fire – just smoke from a faulty electrical cable – while Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service told the Daily Echo they were called to extinguish a “small fire” in the north block.

Firefighters were called back again at 12.03pm after “smells of burning” were reported – and they used thermal imaging equipment to investigate.

They left the scene for the second time at 12.38pm.

 

The power cut – which the hospital confirmed was caused by an electrical fault – was resolved just before 5pm.

Emergence generators also failed after being affected by the fault.

Meanwhile, other Hampshire hospitals also declared their own major incidents.

Non-emergency patients were sent home while incidents of major trauma were diverted from Southampton to Basingstoke and North Hampshire.

Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, Royal Hampshire County Hospital and North Hampshire Hospital were all accepting ambulances for Southampton.

By 1.30pm, staff at Hampshire NHS Trust were taking to social media to warn that paediatric outpatient appointments at Winchester hospital were cancelled for the rest of the day.

Eastleigh bus company Xelabus cancelled their X11 service, which goes to the hospital.

Patients and visitors were asked not to visit or to call the Southampton hospital switchboard so staff could deal with the incident.

Now city leaders are calling for an investigation after A&E, surgery theatres and internet services were all affected.

Patients have slammed hospital managers – calling scenes at the Coxford Road hospital “disgraceful”.

One father of a two-month-old baby said: “It’s disgraceful. At five this morning it went boom and all the lights went off. They were going round with torches.”

His partner added: “It was worrying. They were not able to sterilise baby bottles. We were trying to get round the beds using the lights on our phones. I was concerned why it was happening in the first place.”

 

A staff member who did not want to be named said it was “manic”.

One mother said: “My daughter is in the high dependency unit and I got a call telling me the power was off and they were trying to get the generator on.

“All the lights and power keeps flickering on and off. At one point it was absolute chaos.”

City Conservative health spokesperson, Councillor Ivan White, pictured inset left, said he would be calling for in investigation into the incident. He said: “I expect everybody will be asking questions as to why systems didn’t recover.

“We will be asking questions as to why the hospital wasn’t able to recover from cable failure. Generally there’re systems in place that should overcome that. I hope nobody was particularly affected.”

City health boss Cllr Dave Shields said: “I have been in meetings this afternoon about the hospital and got some reassurance that people are dealing with it.

“The main thing is to make sure people are getting their appointments. Worrying about what happened will come later.”

A statement issued by the hospital at 4.40 yesterday afternoon said: “As the electrical cable fault which led to a power failure across the trust has been resolved, we have now resumed emergency and trauma surgery and power has been fully restored across Southampton General and the Princess Anne hospitals.

“Despite this affecting our emergency generator, we were able to keep our inpatients safe through battery back-up of vital equipment, and their care remained unaffected throughout.”

 

They added that patients will now face delays in receiving scheduled care and thanked patients and relatives for the understanding as well as staff for “handling the situation calmly and with complete professionalism at all times.”

Directors did not confirm how many appointments and operations were cancelled.

What was the impact on other hospitals?

Other Hampshire hospitals also declared their own major incident.

Non emergency patients were sent home while those requiring urgent care were rushed to other hospitals - with incidents of "major trauma" diverted from Southampton to Basingstoke and North Hampshire.

By 1.30pm staff at Hampshire NHS Trust were taking to social media to warn that paediatric outpatient appointments at Winchester hospital were cancelled for the "rest of the day."

Eastleigh bus company Xelabus cancelled their X11 service which goes to the hospital.

Patients and visitors were asked not to visit or to call the Southampton hospital switchboard so that staff could deal with the incident.

Still confusion over claims of a fire

Hospital chiefs maintained there was no fire - just smoke from a faulty electrical cable.

But Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service told the Daily Echo they were called at 8.41am and extinguished a "small fire" in the north block - using breathing apparatus, jets and tactical ventilation kit to get rid of smoke.

Firefighters were called back again at 12.03 after "smells of burning" were reported - and they used thermal imaging equipment to investigate.

They left the scene for the second time at 12.38.

What did patients have to say?

Debbie Tapner, 59, from Chandlers Ford had her hip replacement cancelled after waiting nine months. She said: “There’s just no information. Its frustrating. It wouldn’t happen in the private sector. I’m going to go home and have a cry. It’s not the doctors' fault, they are lovely. But somebody made the decision to turf everybody out."

Mark Cornforth, 44, from Weston, was due to have an emergency endoscopy but was sent home. It means he won’t be able to eat until the tube that provides him with food is fixed. He said: “They can’t rebook the appointment because the systems aren’t working. But they could have let us know before we left home. They could have phoned us up. They could stick a sign up at the entrance.”

Sally Kittscha, 73, from Otterbourne, was due to have mouth cancer taken out in an operation but was sent home. She said patients were waiting in corridors to be told whether they would stay or go. She said: “It’s a work-up getting all uptight about it. It was all in darkness when we got here. The lifts weren’t going.”