Hospital shuts emergency department to new admissions after power cut

A hospital has closed its emergency department to new admissions after suffering a power cut.

A major incident has been declared at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, Hampshire , following the outage which has also affected phone lines.

Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust posted on X: “As a result of an unexpected serious loss of power, Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust has declared a Major Incident at Queen Alexandra Hospital.

“The hospital is safe and our staff are working hard to continuing providing care for patients already with us, but we have made the decision to close to new attendances to our Emergency Department.

“ Patients with a serious medical condition must phone NHS 111 or 999 in an Emergency and not attend the QA Hospital Emergency Department.

“Phone lines and switchboard are also affected, so you will not be able to call into or receive calls from the hospital at this time.

“Our on-site teams are working to restore power as soon as possible. We expect some services will be affected today and there may be some cancellations, but please continue to attend unless you have been contacted or updated through us directly or our website/social media.”