Steps taken to improve Worthing Hospital’s power supply

WORTHING Hospital is taking steps to improve its power supply after a failure left wards without electricity for 16 hours, a meeting heard.

The shut-down on November 10 last year was the third in as many months, after power cuts on September 24 and 29 were also caused by a failure of the supply serving the site.

As a result, ambulances had to be re-routed to other hospitals and operations cancelled, while stand-by generators were set up to help the areas most in need keep running.

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At a meeting of Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust on Thursday, it was heard health bosses have now pledged to upgrade facilities to ensure it does not happen again.

The trust, which also runs St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester and Southlands Hospital in Shoreham, said it has been working closely with UK Power to create a direct supply into the hospital to prevent any further shortages.