Staff locked in hospital during ‘unprecedented’ power cut

Staff were effectively “locked in” a hospital at night during a power cut that led to a major incident being declared last year, HSJ can reveal.

Details have emerged about the power failure and “unprecedented” disruption at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth following a Freedom of Information request made by HSJ.

The loss of power, which occurred between midnight and 2am, resulted in a failure of secure door access systems with some reported incidents “where staff were potentially locked in”.

Staff interviewed as part of a debrief after the major incident in August said this was a “serious risk” and raised concerns about why the doors defaulted to locked during the power cut.

The trust claims there were manual overrides in place but staff did not know about them.

A spokesperson for Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust said a “series of recommendations for improvement” made after the incident have since “been completed or have full plans in place for delivery”.

They said: “To ensure patient and staff safety, we have security measures in place on some of our doors to reduce the risk of unauthorised access to clinical and secure areas. These doors have manual overrides in place which are checked by our estates team working with our contractors on an ongoing basis.

“During this incident, general awareness of the manual override systems on our doors was raised, so we continue working with teams to ensure all staff are familiar with our plans and how to access areas during an incident.”

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Source: HSJ, 21 May 2025