ABU DHABI // About 30 patients who were evacuated last night from Ahalia Hospital continue to receive treatment at the hospital’s branch in Mussaffah as power has not yet been restored to the Hamdan Street location.
The patients were evacuated in a fleet of seven ambulances at 9.30pm Monday night after water leaked into the hospital basement from an apparent pipe burst nearby. Authorities shut off power as a safety measure.
“We are still waiting for police and Abu Dhabi power officials to come and check the safety before the power is switched back on,” said a hospital official.
“There was some water leakage from outside into the basement. It could be a pipe burst. The Civil Defence advised to shut off the power as a safety measure and we shifted the patients to our other hospital around 9.30pm.
The hospital has two auxiliary generators, but they also appear to have failed.
“We have evacuation plans in place and do regular drills,” the official said. “This helped to evacuate the patients quickly. All of them were stable last night.”
He said the hospital had two buildings and only one of them, where patients are admitted, had been evacuated. Some had been discharged last night, while the remaining 30 had been shifted to the Mussaffah branch.
“There is power in the other building and the emergency ward is functional.”
Once power is restored, patients had the option to return, he said.
“We have all facilities in our Mussaffah branch and they can get treated there. If they want to come back, we can shift them.”
Police, Civil Defence and officials from Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority are expected to perform safety checks in the hospital on Tuesday morning and decide if the power can be turned back on.
pkannan@thenational.ae
