Hospital still on alternative power

The back-up failure should be easy to solve but the switch that caused the initial failure was more of a mystery. Photo / Duncan Brown

Hawke's Bay Hospital remains on an alternative mains electricity supply after a power outage forced emergency department staff to use torches on Saturday, when the hospital's back-up system failed.

Kevin Atkinson, chairman of both the Hawke's Bay District Health Board and lines company Unison Networks, said a switch to hospital back-up generators was working during routine testing in December and it was possibly a software fault that caused the problem.

After the mains electricity supply failed, the switch "kept clicking in and clicking out" for seconds at a time during the outage from 11.45am to 1.04pm.

"It should always run for at least 15 minutes, regardless for how long the power outage is," he said.

The back-up failure should be easy to solve but the switch that caused the initial failure was more of a mystery - it was used worldwide with no problems reported, he said.

"We may have to send that to Germany to get it analysed."

The hospital had two mains electricity sources. Saturday's problem was solved by the hospital using its Orchard Rd supply, an independent feed from the Mahora substation, on which it remained yesterday.

Another level of surety of supply might be possible, he said.

"I've asked them to see if it is technically achievable for the hospital site to have an automatic switch, from the hospital feeder to the Orchard Rd feeder, to provide another opportunity for a quick switchover. The generator may not need to come into play."

Unison and health board investigations are continuing.