Portsmouth hospital closes emergency department, reports serious incident after power cut

A hospital has closed its emergency department to new patients and reported a serious incident after a major power outage.

The outage at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, Hampshire, also affected telephone lines.

Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust posted on X: “Due to an unexpected major power outage, Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust has reported a serious incident at Queen Alexandra Hospital.

“The hospital is safe and our staff is working hard to continue to care for the patients who are already with us. However, we have decided to close our emergency department to new patients.

“Patients with a serious medical condition should call NHS 111 or 999 in an emergency and should not attend the QA Hospital A&E department. Telephone lines and the switchboard have also been affected, so you will not be able to call the hospital or receive calls from the hospital at this time.

“Our teams on site are working to restore power as quickly as possible. We expect some services to be affected today and there may be some cancellations, but please remain in attendance unless you have been contacted or notified directly by us or via our website/social media.”