Auckland surgeries up and running after power failure

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A full schedule of surgeries was running today after a back-up power failure at Auckland and Starship Hospitals forced the postponement of some elective surgery yesterday.

A routine six-monthly test yesterday morning caused generators serving both hospitals to break down.

The power failure meant the hospitals would be without electricity if they were hit by a power cut, Auckland District Health Board spokesman Matt Rogers said.

A further test on the generators providing back-up power to both buildings will be carried out at 7am tomorrow (Friday).

Another test will also take place at 7am on Monday to confirm the repairs had been effective, Mr Rogers said.

Technicians remained on-site working to fix the problem, which had been identified with the generators' automation system.

Staff and patients could be reassured that the generators were able to be manually started in the event of a loss of mains power, Mr Rogers said.

Acute and elective surgeries which could be completed within the safety window provided by the hospital's battery back-up system went ahead yesterday. Those expected to take longer were postponed.

There was no risk to the safety of any patient, Mr Rogers said.

Both buildings continued to operate on mains power as normal.

In the event of a mains power failure, some areas would go on to battery back-up and would be able to keep functioning for a finite period.

- NZPA