A €300,000 power cut

MEDICATION worth €297,818 had to be destroyed following an electrical fault at the Princesa hospital in Madrid.

On May 1, a public holiday, medical staff discovered that the electricity for a refrigerated store had been cut off since April 29.

This was caused by an overload whose origin has still not been established. Following this, the automatic temperature control “failed to function correctly”, according to a subsequent enquiry.

The refrigerator’s temperature rose to 16C but between April 29 and May 1, when the breakdown was eventually discovered, no medicines had been withdrawn from the store.

“Nobody accessed the refrigerator so the fault went unnoticed,” explained a spokesman for Madrid’s Regional Health Department.

Once discovered, the refrigerator was restarted and all the medication removed and analysed.

One batch used for cancer treatment and another of antibodies used to attack bacteria and viruses had to be destroyed, the Health Department announced recently.

“There have been no more incidents with the refrigerator but as a precautionary measure, regular visual checks are being made on the changeover of each shift.”

Written by

Linda Hall

Originally from the UK, Linda is based in Valenca and is a reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering local news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.

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