Cables fixed after blunder caused Hampshire A&E delays

Repairs have been made to damaged cables that caused broadband and phone issues at hospitals and 4,000 homes and businesses.

The problems began after contractors working at Dummer, near Basingstoke, accidentally drilled through fibre optic and copper cables on Wednesday.

Openreach, which is responsible for maintaining the cables, said it worked overnight to get systems back online.

A spokesperson said it was still working to get everyone reconnected.

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said the problem had caused long delays at emergency departments across the the county.

Hospitals in Winchester, Andover and Basingstoke urged patients with non-life threatening conditions to seek alternative care as a result.

Openreach said the cables had been damaged by a third party contractor.

Its engineers worked through the night to repair the main NHS circuit which brought the Royal Hampshire County Hospital and Andover War Memorial Hospital back online.

The provider said domestic and business customers may find their landlines return before broadband services.

"Our specialist engineers will continue to work over the weekend and into next week to repair the damage caused earlier this week," the spokesperson said.

"While repairs to our fibreoptic network are progressing well and many homes and businesses are now back online, it's taking longer to fix our copper network."

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