The A&E department at Margate’s QEQM Hospital is currently in darkness following a power outage.
Ambulances are reportedly having to divert to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford as the department is unable to accept any more patients. People in A&E have told The Isle of Thanet News that doctors and nurses have been reduced to working by torchlight and mobile phone lights.
There are reports that the power cables appear to have been cut, possibly by workmen. Some patients have been told the power may not be back on until midnight.
Councillor Karen Constantine said there should be a contingency plan in place, adding: “QEQM should have back up generators sufficient to keep it going. It should also have a ‘business continuity’ plan that is now operational. I hope staff and patients are coping and that the power is up and running soon.”
UPDATE: Kent Fire and Rescue has now provided emergency flood lighting. Other areas of the hospital are unaffected.
East Kent Hospitals is asking people not to attend A&E.
UPDATE: 10.48pm – Power restored.
Part of the QEQM Hospital, Margate, is without power. The hospital’s A&E is affected. Our contingency plans are in place to keep patients safe until power is restored. Please don't attend the A&E, keep ambulances free for life-threatening conditions. If in doubt call NHS111
— East Kent Hospitals (@EKHUFT) February 20, 2019
Can’t believe they do not have a back up Generator.
Why haven’t the generators come on, they should activate automatically when the main power fails.
Apparently there cut cables. That isn’t confirmed but comes from more than one source
Perhaps getting us ready for when the NHS decides that it’s not in our interests to have an Accident and Emergency department in Thanet.
There are standby generators at QEQM, I know, I used to service them.
How come the cables are cut? Who cut them? Contractors perhaps or was it vandalism?
I hope that an emergency generator was ordered on hire the second there was a problem.
This should not happen and I for one am very curious to find out what has caused this disaster. I just hope nobody was being operated on at the time.
I for one am very curious to find out
Just a&e so hopefully no impact on operations etc. It seems it may have been accidentally done by workmen
Are you unaware of the internal inquiry at Petbow into failure of Guys backup generator ? Or the inquiry raised by Jonathan Aitken MP 1995/96 after the inquest into death of a child patient in post op ICU at Guys during an identical failure incident of Guys Petbow system ? With Aitkens backing I had queried the inquest inquiry. And Aitken made HSE argue with me in the tech detail. HSE lost. Two things then happened HSE investigated at the factory and Aitken went to MI5.
The company admitted to HSE the history of rotor pack to weld failures that they had issued no product warning or recall about. That was a separate issue from Guys arising from all 3 Petbows at Leeds Infirmary having defective rotor pack welds
The sabotage problem was exacerbated by a problem of falsifying factory load tests. We caught this 1987 re Theale Technology centre and Hemel Hempstead police back ups
At Leeds Infirmary the engineer who was also a weld inspector secured photos of the sabotaged rotor pack weld. So in 87 there was photo and expert evidence.
The first report I am aware of re saboteur at Petbow is 1981 relating to stator windings. This same engineer who was ignored in 81 found nobbled control wiring at BP House and this led to the similar failure as at Guys in which the Petbow system opened mains breakers and caused mains power to be switched off the site.
We don’t know what happened at QEQN yet
I reported by invitation to Scottish Energy Minister after Dounreat incidents and Hunterston B nuclear close call. I reported tpo Tony Blair after he wrote to me in 2005 during election campaignwhen Maidstone Hospital back up failed AGAIN ! And in 2007 new security of electrical supply guidelines were issued for hospitals. And I reported by invitation to UK post Japanese tsunami review of civil nuke safety and resilience
Where did he work before Petbow ? GEC Transformers.. Didn’t they issue a product recall for sub standard welding ?
So the emergency generators did not kick in the moment the power was cut. There cables would be seperate from the cut power cable. Are they no longer serviced due to cut backs? Would love to find out. Hopefully everyone was ok before power was restored!
Richard Card.
What on earth has your rankings got to do with the current situation at QEQM?and more to the point what the hell as it got to do with me.
I have seen your (possibly) iibellous rantings about Petbow before and come to the conclusion you have a personal axe to grind – we’ll leave me out of your diatribe, I wasn’t involved with, or had no knowledge of anything you are ranting on about. Disengenous I am not being, and resent the suggestion that I was being so.
Keep your biased opinions to yourself and just keep to the subject in hand. Viz. the cables to the A & E unit at QEQM appear to have been cut, an occurrence that would not cause the standby generators to cut in any more than switching the lights off would do!
Try asking the person or persons that caused the damage, not rake up dirt from decades ago to satisfy your personal agenda.
Not the place, not the time!