by Selwyn Manning

Surgery at Auckland’s Starship Children’s Hospital has recommenced after flooding cancelled all surgery and grommet procedures this morning.

A seal burst in the Starship’s basement heating system this morning at around 5:30am which cut warm air being delivered to the hospital’s wards and theatres.

This caused the Starship to initiate its “disaster control plan”, Auckland Healthcare spokesperson, Brenda Saunders told Scoop this afternoon.

“While it did not get cold immediately, it would have done eventually,” Ms Saunders says. “We got a repair crew in and they fixed the heating problem by about 9 o’clock this morning.”

A decision had already been made to cancel surgery for the morning and extra blankets were brought in for the children on the wards: “And we have had to cut grommet surgery for the day as that involves patients coming in from all over Auckland for day surgery.”

“Subsequently, normal service and theatre has now resumed. Grommet surgeries will be re-scheduled for Monday.”

Starship’s admission numbers is still high, although Ms Saunders says it has passed its peak of last week with a record number of patients showing up at the emergency department: “But this has dropped off now, which is good.”

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