Flooding affects hospital and police phone lines

A NUMBER of telephone lines at hospitals and South Yorkshire Police are experiencing difficulties, due to flood damage  to the region's phone systems.

Rotherham Hospital's main switchboard, some numbers at Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital and the police force's non-emergency number 101 have all been experiencing problems since heavy flooding hit parts of Leeds over the weekend.

Both Vodafone and BT systems in Leeds have been affected by flood damage.

Health bosses and police have asked people to bear with them.

A spokesman for Sheffield Teaching Hospitals said: "Some telephone numbers at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital are not working due to damage to the region’s telephone systems as a result of the floods in Leeds.

"This has impacted on Sheffield Teaching Hospitals as some of our telephone services are provided from the affected installations in Leeds.

"Specifically, the main Royal Halllamshire Telephone number 0114 271 1900 and the numbers 0114 271 2000 to 0114 271 3999 are unobtainable.

"If patients and visitors need to call one of the above telephone numbers please dial the Northern General Hospital switchboard on 0114 2434343 and the Switchboard team will connect the call.

"Additional switchboard staff are on duty but callers are asked to be patient as the additional volume of calls may mean it will take a little longer for calls to be answered.

"Engineers are currently trying to repair the damage."