Power cut at University Hospital Crosshouse sees appointments across Ayrshire cancelled

Outpatient appointments across Ayrshire have been cancelled after a power cut caused an emergency to be declared at the healthboard’s main hospital.

University Hospital Crosshouse’s electrical supply suffered disruption in the early hours of Sunday morning.

An emergency response was implemented at the NHS Ayrshire and Arran hospital, near Kilmarnock, following the cut.

Power was then fully restored and, although there were no issues for patient safety, the hospital’s administrative systems suffered and have yet to be fully restored.

The impact has meant outpatient clinics for acute services on Monday, March 7, are cancelled with people told not to attend and to call the Referral Management Service if they are concerned.

This includes clinics at University Hospitals Ayr and Crosshouse, East Ayrshire Community Hospital, Ayrshire Central Hospital and MSK appointments at Biggart Hospital.

The public was also warned that the administrative system issues may lead to disruption across acute and community services more widely in the coming days.

The healthboard’s chief apologised for the disruption and said all necessary steps were being taken to restore services.

There was an interruption to the power supply at University Hospital Crosshouse in the early hours of this morning (Sun 6 March). The power is restored & contingency plans helped minimise the impact on patients & ensure patient safety. More here: https://t.co/i7yuqtmij2
— NHS Ayrshire & Arran (@NHSaaa) March 6, 2022

Dr Crawford McGuffie, NHS Ayrshire and Arran medical director, said: “This has been an unavoidable decision and we understand that this will have an impact on a number of people who access our services.

“Unfortunately the administrative systems we rely on to run our outpatient clinics smoothly have not been fully restored at this point, so we will not be in a position to run these services on Monday, March 7.

“Our teams are working very hard to get all these systems operating normally and we hope everything can be resolved as quickly as possible.

“We are very sorry for the impact these appointment cancellations will undoubtedly have on our patients and want to apologise for any disruption caused.

“If you have an outpatient appointment at an NHS Ayrshire & Arran outpatient clinic on Monday 7 March, please do not attend.”

Impacted patients can call the Referral Management Service on 01563 827070 from 9am on Monday, March 7, for more information.

“Patients should be reassured that their safety is our number one priority and we are taking all necessary steps to reschedule these cancelled appointments as quickly as possible,” Dr McGuffie said.

“We are continuously appraising the impact of these administrative systems issues, which are unfortunately affecting many of our health and social care services and may lead to disruption across acute and community services more widely in the coming days.

“We will make further assessments early in the week and provide additional information for our citizens as soon as we have details on any further anticipated disruption.

“I would like to thank the public for their support at this time.”