The country’s main maternity hospital has had to spend more than €500,000 after being warned of the risk of a catastrophic power failure and a fire that would cause “unrepairable and permanent damage” to their electrical systems.
The National Maternity Hospital on Holles Street in Dublin had been operating using electrical cables that were laid around 35 years ago and which were never meant to manage the load that the hospital has needed in recent years.
An expert engineering report explained how the electrical system was frequently operating at a level way beyond its “recommended rating”.
The report said: “This will lead to a catastrophic power failure. When cables such as these fail, they have a real risk of causing a fire within a main switchboard/hospital building causing unrepairable and permanent damage.”
It said the expected wait time for replacement parts was in the order of four months during which the day-to-day running of the hospital would have been compromised.
The antiquated system had already caused the failure of back-up power equipment as well as the loss of the main electrical supply to the hospital during periods of “peak demand”.
The report said having a reliable supply of power was an obligation on healthcare facilities to ensure the functionality and safety of patient care.
It added: “The [hospital] electrical supply has had serious failures on the electrical distribution system in recent weeks resulting in back-up power system failures, switchgear faults, and the loss of the primary electrical supply from the local ESB network.
“Luckily these incidents were weeks apart and not at the same time.”
The hospital had first become aware of the problem in November 2022 when carrying out routine maintenance with questions raised over the risk of a power blackout and how much longer the “aging” infrastructure would last.
The report said: “The [National Maternity Hospital] requires a level of resilience which is capable of supporting patients in a clinical Risk Category ‘A’ which is the highest level of acute care which includes life support services.”
The document explained how over time the pressure on the system had grown as the hospital was expanded and upgraded but without any changes to its power supply system.
The report also said additional risk had been created by adding a neighbouring property to the supply system and that staff using “under desk heaters” in cold weather had also created additional supply demands.
“These items are not accounted for in the hospital’s electrical design, and they should be removed,” it recommended.
Holles Street were also told a “black-out emergency scenario” needed to be planned for including the supply of emergency generators in case of a major failure.
Asked about the report, which was finalised last January, the hospital said significant work costing €500,000 had taken place to act on the recommendations made.
The spokeswoman added: “The National Maternity Hospital has [also] tendered for replacement generators.”
