05.02.18
Major Manchester trust cancels operations due to burst water pipe
Four central Manchester hospitals have been forced to cancel operations due to problems with their water supply.
Manchester University NHS FT issued a statement urging patients to stay away from the four sites unless there was an “urgent clinical need.”
All operations scheduled for today in the affected hospitals were cancelled as a precaution, apart from cancer and urgent procedures.
The trust was trying to contact all affected patients yesterday evening, and the operations will be rescheduled as soon as possible.
Outpatient appointments were expected to run as normal.
Patients reported being told not to shower or flush the toilet and to use only antibacterial gel to wash their hands while the water supply was reduced.
The affected hospitals – Manchester Royal Infirmary, Saint Mary’s Hospital, Manchester Royal Eye Hospital and Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital – are situated on the trust’s Oxford Road site.
United Utilities said the cause of the problem was a burst pipe on Oxford Road. The water company had five water tankers on site pumping water into the pipes to try to maintain water supplies, and reported repairing the burst pipe in the early hours of this morning.
Although the trust cancelled this morning’s operations, it has confirmed that planned procedures will take place from this afternoon.
In a statement today, the provider said that the disrupted water supply had led to the implementation of the internal major incident and contingency plans, which it claims worked well and that staff and patients responded “magnificently” to the incident.
“Unfortunately we had to cancel all planned surgery for Monday morning; urgent surgery will still go ahead, to ensure that all our facilities were working especially the decontamination systems,” the statement explained.
“The water supply has now been restored and we can confirm that all planned operations will take place from this afternoon and advise patients to attend the hospitals as normal both for their planned procedures and for outpatients appointments.”