UPDATE: Peterborough and Stamford hospitals critical incident ends after appointments and operations cancelled

Peterborough City Hospital exteriors EMN-141118-141223009

The Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had declared a critical internal incident this morning while staff adapted to ensure over 1,200 appointments could still take place, despite the technical issues affecting the retrieval of some electronic patient records and creating intermittent problems accessing some healthcare systems.

The problem arose overnight and at first it was announced that appointments would be cancelled until midday, but this was later extended to the rest of Thursday.

However, the trust has confirmed that appointments for tomorrow will go ahead.

Stephen Graves, chief executive, said: “We would like to apologise to all patients affected by today’s problems and our booking team will be contacting them to reschedule cancelled appointments as early as possible.

“Patients have been incredibly supportive and we really appreciate them bearing with us. All urgent care cases went ahead, as did the majority of outpatient appointments, which is testament to the huge efforts of our staff in helping manage what has been a challenging day for all.

“I would like to thank them for their fantastic support today.”