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Updated 17.28
THE DIFFICULTIES WITH the water supply at University Hospital Waterford continue with all elective procedures tomorrow now postponed.
“The ongoing difficulties in the public water supply at UHW remain,” a spokeperson said this afternoon. “The level of discoloration has eased slightly… the situation continues to be monitored closely,” she added.
As a precautionary measure UHW will curtail elective services, and approximately 30 patients scheduled for elective procedures tomorrow will be postponed.
These patients will be rescheduled as soon as possible. All emergency and cancer care will continue as normal.
In an earlier statement, Irish Water apologised for the disruption caused. A spokesperson for the company said the issue resulted from “the loss of supply due to an unplanned water interruption in the Dunmore Road area”.
“Irish Water and Waterford City and County Council responded to an incident resulting in poor water pressure at Waterford Hospital on Monday morning.
Water supply levels depleted over the weekend due to a technical fault following a lightning strike at pumps supplying water to a local reservoir. The restoration of water supply was then prioritised to the hospital by Irish Water. As a result, customers in the Dunmore Road and surrounding areas in Waterford City were impacted by an unplanned water interruption.
“Irish Water was and remains in direct contact with hospital management as we worked to restore full supply to the hospital. Water was restored to the hospital at adequate pressure by 1pm on Monday and to surrounding areas by 5pm.
“Following the incident there is some discolouration of water in the general supply area. Hospital management were advised that this is a normal occurrence after supply interruptions,” the statement said, adding that the issue should be resolved soon.
In a statement this morning, the hospital said: “Arising from difficulties experienced in the public water supply from one of Waterford’s reservoirs, University Hospital Waterford, as a precautionary measure, is postponing elective procedures for a period of 24 hours.
“It is expected by that time that the restoration of full water supply will be to the required clinical standards allowing for the full resumption of all services.”
Additional reporting Cianan Brennan
First published 8.17am
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2 hospitals in 2 weeks. Water problems. Something going on.
@LITTLEONE:
Just thinking the same. Seems more than a coincidence. Bullying hasn’t worked so now the health scare tactics come into play.
They wouldn’t stoop that low would they?
@LITTLEONE:
There is no nadir with Fine Gael.
@LITTLEONE: Hang on and I’ll find my tinfoil hat
@LITTLEONE: Wanna Bet !!!
@ƃ ɹ ǝ ɟ: for what? Has there not been 2 hospitals in 2 weeks hit with water problems. If that’s your idea of tinfoil. Time for you to get a new hobby.
Ooh, lightening strike, not lightening strike. All those industrial relations stories have me paranoid.
YES they would.
They were always going to go down this route after their first set of tactics failed, my water has gone brown 3 times in the past few weeks, watch out for more and more of these “problems”
If they fix it as fast as they fixed the problem in my area, they should be back operating in or around October 2019.
Yes,it took Irish water 6 weeks to fix a big leak at Main street, Bray. They said it was not a priority even though thousands of litres of water were flowing down the street.
The billing system is their and the governments priority. They can react to known leaks let alone the new ones they find at houses.
Just wondering if this will be the headline on RTÉ this evening…….
Its news from yesterday and was on RTE
We are turning into a third world country
Irish politicians don’t use overseas money havens like Switzerland or Ansbacher Carmen any more..or do They?..
I would have thought that hospitals would have a built in contingency for things like this in a disaster recovery situation.
@Jimmy Berg: #cantpaywontpay I suggest the middle income taxpayer steps in and sorts this out, it’s their duty
@Jimmy – I don’t think they understand the word contingency plus a lot of other words with more that 6 letters. The HSE and the Gov are just really crap at doing things – lazy or incompetent or stupid, or possibly all three, I dunno. Imagine patients in James being told no showers or baths, no water for drinking and you have to take your pills dry unless your family brought you some 7Up. Unless this is all part of the masterplan to get everyone that matters on private health insurance with their premiums rising every year even if you havent claimed, levys because company A got too greddy and went belly up, increases because of some obscure legal expense that they can’t tell you about.
It’s a bit of a joke to have a hand sanitation unit every couple of feet but have water coming in through the taps that could be harmful. The hospitals should have a secondary filtration system in place.
And everyone’s favourite Super Quango, Irish Water charge headlong into the breech to save the poor sick people.
Our heros…..
John Halligan has been onto Enda already to get a second water supply fed in there.
‘Lightning strike at reservoir.’ Is this an additional charge or a positive change.
And if we all payed for water everything would have been fine !!!!
Davy dint be dilly , we already do, go back to bed.
He’s Being sarcastic. If Mr Cryptosporidium enters the hospital via Irish Water things will hot up
@Davy. LOL.
The government would want to pull the finger out. And start cleaning up this Country. The Councils do nothing now they would want to start working for their money,
They want a second CT-Scan machine? Sort out the basics first.
Put a few Tasmanian devils into the reservoir: be grand…
have your say