Steve Brine has thanked staff at RHCH after a power outage at Southampton General Hospital resulted in them closing their Emergency Department and diverting to Winchester, Portsmouth and Basingstoke.
RHCH went into an internal Major Incident to accommodate the transfers from UHS, and as a result of the diversion Winchester was extremely busy all day, and following the restoration of services at Southampton General Hospital, Hampshire has now been stood down from receiving ambulances diverted from University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust.
As a result, RHCH has been able to stand down their internal major incident, and their teams are going through the process of de-escalation before returning to business as normal as soon as possible.
As a result of the extra pressure placed on their services, they have taken the difficult decision to postpone all elective orthopaedic operations due to take place on Thursday 29 November at Winchester hospital. All other services will continue as normal, and they apologise for the inconvenience this will cause. All affected patients will be contacted and postponed operations will be rescheduled as soon as possible.
Steve Brine said: “I just want to put on record my thanks to all the staff at RHCH who have really stepped up to ensure the local health economy remains safe.”
