Fire crews attend QA Hospital as overheated equipment causes intermittent system issues with internal critical incident declared
An internal critical incident was declared at QA Hospital today due to intermittent system issues caused by a piece of equipment overheating.
Fire crews attended Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham just before 2am on Tuesday, August 12 after the overheated equipment triggered an alarm. While no fire was found, the issue caused digital services to be down, including its computers and telephone/switchboard, intermittently throughout the morning.
A spokesperson for Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, which runs QA Hospital, said: “As a result of equipment overheating in one of the server rooms on the Queen Alexandra Hospital site we have faced intermittent issues with our digital systems and telephones/switchboard this morning.
“To ensure patient safety was maintained during the disruption, staff implemented their tried and tested business continuity plans and the situation has been managed by senior leaders as an internal critical incident. Thank you to our staff and patients for their ongoing support."
The overheated equipment caused an alarm to go off with fire crews from across the region attending. Arriving just before 2am they stayed on site for a number of hours, only receiving the stop message just before 8am to signify the incident was under control.
A Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Service spokesperson said: “Crews from Cosham, Redbridge, Romsey, Portchester, and Southsea were called to Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth shortly before 2am today after equipment had overheated in a sub-basement server room causing an alarm to sound.
“Wearing breathing apparatus, firefighters entered the building but found no signs of fire. The stop message was received at 07:50am.”