Water supplies affected at Newcastle's Freeman hospital
Nine fire engines were called to Newcastle's Freeman Hospital this week to pump water to the hospital's reserve tanks after a fractured pipe cut the building's supplies. Staff were instructed to refrain from using water 'as much as possible without affecting patient care' and firefighters created a water relay to fill the gravity tanks that supply vital departments including kidney dialysis. Michael Bell, chief engineering officer at the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We had staff monitoring levels in the high-level storage tanks and reporting back to us. We sent out a memo to all managers asking them not to use as much water, but no part of the hospital was left without and there was no risk to patients. We also had domestic supervisors on hand to make sure there were no problems arising on the wards."
