Flooding hits London hospital’s operations

A motorcyclist rides through deep water on a flooded road in The Nine Elms district of London.

All planned surgery and outpatient appointments have been cancelled at an east London hospital after a weekend of heavy rain caused flooding in parts of the capital.Officials said ambulances were being diverted away from Whipps Cross hospital while a cleanup operation was carried out.It comes after footage online showed various parts of the broader area under water.“We are continuing to experience operational issues at Whipps Cross hospital due to the heavy rainfall. We cancelled all planned surgery and outpatient appointments and are diverting ambulances while we work hard to clean up affected areas of the hospital,” said a spokesperson for Barts Health NHS trust yesterday.“We are keeping the situation under constant review and will post updates about services as necessary. Meanwhile, we cleaned all areas affected by the flooding at Newham hospital yesterday and its emergency department is now open to people needing emergency care.“We are working closely with other hospitals across the Barts Health group to maintain patient care and asking the public to check the latest visiting arrangements for each hospital on our website before coming to any site.”Homes, roads and public transport stations in London were flooded as a result of the weekend’s rainfall, while the Environment Agency has six flood warnings in place across south-eastern England.In all, there are also 19 alerts for potential flooding active throughout England and Wales.St James’s Park in London was the wettest part of the country on Sunday.The daily rainfall value of 41.8mm was that weather station’s second-wettest July day on record.