A cancer patient who was about to undergo surgery at a Dublin hospital this week had his operation put off for another two weeks after a power cut resulted in a number of operations having to be rescheduled.
A relative said that the patient, who was only recently diagnosed, was all "psyched up" for the surgery and is upset at the prospect of having to wait another fortnight for his operation. He is also concerned about the clinical consequences of the delay, the relative said.
A spokesman for St James's Hospital said 25 operations had to be rescheduled as a result of technical difficulties which arose following a power cut at the hospital on Monday. He stressed that any emergencies scheduled for the day were carried out late on Monday evening as theatres stayed open for longer than usual.
Furthermore, he said 14 patients' operations were rescheduled for yesterday.
He added that while the hospital could not comment on individual cases it appreciated the patient's concerns in this case and was itself concerned that anyone's operation had to be rescheduled.
The technical problems at the hospital occurred after electricity supplies were restored and one of the internal electrical breakers failed to reset. This internal fault disrupted services even though the hospital has its own generator. A statement from the hospital said: "This caused a power outage to one of the main patient service areas of the hospital for periods ranging from one to three hours. The outage disrupted hospital services primarily in theatres, radiology and cardiology.
"Arrangements are being made to address any consequential backlogs as speedily as possible. There were no adverse patient clinical occurrences associated with the outage".
It added the technical difficulties which occurred would be investigated to ensure they did not happen again.