'loses running water' as 'absolutely ridiculous'

A CRISIS-HIT hospital’s running water was disrupted twice in around 48 hours while sewage was understood to have been leaking into a waiting room.

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The incidents happened last week at Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales amid chronic structural problems at the dilapidated site.After staff told the Echo the hospital had completely lost its water supply last Wednesday, we repeatedly pressed Cardiff and Vale University Health Board for a statement ~ but its first two responses failed to acknowledge there had been any issue at all that day.

It was only when we sent the health board clear evidence of the supply failure that it admitted what had happened.

The issues had started on Monday morning, December 1, when a “faulty” pump led to a loss of hot water in the hospital’s main tower blocks.

“Warm water remained available but temperatures were lower than expected,’ said a health board spokeswoman.

Cold water supply was unaffected that day and hot water returned by 3.30pm. But two days later the supply of both hot and cold water stopped and there was a sewage leak in a patient waiting room.

It comes just weeks after almost 300 doctors wrote to the health board that morale was at an “all-time low” due to a wide range of problems at the hospital, many of them to do with its deteriorating condition.

The health board said the Wednesday incident involved a “cold water pump fault” in two tower blocks. This resulted in a loss of supply for around one hour from 4pm, while valve safeguards also prevented hot water flowing so there would be no scalding, said the spokeswoman.

But one staff member told us: “When hot water came back on, it was absolutely scalding. You couldn't touch it. Surgeons had to scrub with bottled water.”

Sewage leaking into the ‘TAL lounge; a patient waiting room, has been a recurring issue in recent years and happened again last Wednesday, December 3, our source added.