Power has been restored at Christchurch Hospital, with one building being powered by backup generators. 

A one-hour power outage due to a network outage left some areas in total darkness on Friday night.

The Waipapa acute services building is receiving power from its on-site generators, while the Parkside and Riverside buildings are back on mains power.

A hospital spokeswoman said “we will be reviewing why the generators didn’t automatically connect to the hospital’s systems when the power failed.

Thankfully all 478 patients in our care, including 96 in ED at the time the power went out are safe. 

We appreciate the support of St John, Civil Defence, the 24 Hour Surgery as well as our own staff, including those who came in to work on restoring our systems.”

Chris Lynch Media understands some patients picked up by St John Ambulance were redirected to the 24-hour surgery instead of Christchurch Hospital.

Communication between St John ambulance and the Emergency Department was affected.

A patient told Chris Lynch Media a doctor told her “it’s never happened before.”

Another patient said she was with her 8-week-old baby who couldn’t even have a bottle made.