A nurse has told The Courier about the “incredibly hard” working conditions she and her colleagues faced when Forth Valley Royal Hospital lost power during Storm Eowyn.
On Friday afternoon, back-up generators at the Larbert hospital, which serves the Falkirk, Stirling and Clackmannanshire Council areas, failed to turn on immediately.
That evening, NHS Forth Valley released a statement acknowledging that this left the healthcare facility without power for a “short period”, requiring contingency arrangements to be put in place.
Several nurses and doctors said they had never seen anything like it in their careers.
One nurse who wished to remain anonymous claims the power was off at the hospital for more than an hour.
However, NHS Forth Valley maintains this is not true, saying it would have taken time for the systems to reboot.
“It was incredibly hard but the staff just kept going as there was no other option,” the nurse told The Courier.
“We are, unfortunately, used to having to get on with it in very challenging circumstances.
“The power was off for over an hour. Patients’ air mattresses were deflating, there was no access to the drug administration system online.
“Patient call bells weren’t working, including emergency buzzers.
“It affected every piece of monitoring equipment.
“I can’t imagine the impact it must have had on ITU patients that were on ventilators or even the cardiology patients on cardiac monitoring.”
NHS Forth Valley refutes this, saying not all monitoring equipment was affected and all ventilators had back-up batteries.
The health board also confirmed that no patients came to any harm during the power outage.
Ambulances diverted to other hospitals
According to a paramedic who was working across the Forth Valley area on Friday, patients were diverted to other hospitals when Forth Valley Royal lost power.
They said: “It was chaos when the power cut hit.
“We were told to divert and take patients to other hospitals much further away – despite the bad weather.
“Someone has some serious questions to answer about why this happened.”
NHS Forth Valley told The Courier only one patient was taken to a neighbouring health board as part of the contingency measures.
What has NHS Forth Valley said about the power failure?
A spokesperson for NHS Forth Valley confirmed the health board would review the situation to prevent future incidents.
They said: “NHS Forth Valley is committed to reviewing and learning from the impact and response to Storm Eowyn and will work closely with local staff and partners to capture feedback on what could be done differently or better in future to ensure our services and facilities are as resilient as possible.
“Despite the unprecedented challenges presented by the red weather warning and local power issues, staff showed exceptional teamwork, great professionalism and an unwavering commitment to do the very best for our patients in exceptional circumstances.
“We wish to thank local staff, primary care and Serco colleagues for their considerable efforts to maintain the delivery of essential health services across Forth Valley over the last few days.”
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