UPDATED There's been a power cut and a major incident has been declared at Southampton General and the Princess Anne hospitals.
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University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust says all patients are safe, but non-urgent activity is cancelled at present.
The trust is asking patients to not attend the hospital for non-urgent care such as outpatients, routine x-rays or blood tests.
"We are asking relatives not to visit the UHS until further notice. Staff are busy caring at present and we would further ask you not to call switchboard if possible," said the trust on its Facebook page.
"The emergency department is closed for all except urgent emergencies.
"We will keep you informed as the day goes on and are grateful for your support at present and apologise to those whose care is now delayed."
The power cut reportedly followed a fire in an electrical room.
Update: at around 5pm it was announced that the power cut had been resolved.*
A spokesperson for University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust said:
“As the electrical cable fault which led to a power failure across the trust has been resolved, we have now resumed emergency and trauma surgery and power has been fully restored across Southampton General and the Princess Anne hospitals.
“Despite this affecting our emergency generator, we were able to keep our inpatients safe through battery back-up of vital equipment and their care remained unaffected throughout.
“However, as non-urgent operations and appointments scheduled for today were cancelled, some patients will now face delays in receiving their scheduled care with us but we aim to ensure they are rearranged as quickly as possible with prioritisation given based on clinical need.
“We would like to thank patients and relatives for their understanding and our partner organisations and neighbouring hospitals who provided excellent support to manage the increased pressures on our services.
“Above all we would like to say a special thanks to our staff who handled the situation calmly and with complete professionalism at all times to ensure our patients received the highest standards of care in difficult circumstances.”
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