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07
Mar 2024
Harrogate dentist unable to treat emergencies as power cuts strike again
The owner of a Harrogate dentist has said she has been unable to complete emergency treatments due to ongoing town centre power cuts.
The Stray Ferret reported yesterday that a number of businesses on James Street and Prospect Crescent had been affected by four days of intermittent power cuts. The loss of power has affected tills, shutters, phone lines, lighting and the internet, leaving some businesses unable to trade for periods.
Dr Shoreh Ghasmi, owner of The Harrogate Dentist, said the loss of power had left the clinic, which provides 24-hour emergency care, without light, access to medical records and dental machinery.
On one occasion, Dr Ghasmi was treating a patient for a fractured tooth when the lights went out and her tools stopped working.
She said:
Problems began at 8am on Sunday when Dr Ghasmi received an alert from her intruder alarm to say power was down. The practice was left without power to treat four emergency patients.
She said she lost three patients who all found other dentists while a patient who was scheduled for an 8am appointment could only be treated when power was restored at 2pm, meaning a six-hour delay after they had travelled to Harrogate.
When problems recurred on Monday, the clinic was again left with no access to medical records, no phone lines to cancel appointments and no lighting for surgery. When patients arrived, staff didn’t know what procedures they were expecting, which resulted in one patient only getting half of their arranged treatment.
When Dr Ghasmi reported it to Northern Powergrid she was told she was the only one to have reported it despite several stores on James Street telling the Stray Ferret they had also raised the matter.
Dr Shoreh Ghasmi
The issue has now persisted for a fifth day. Dr Ghasmi said the private clinic has had to turn away patients from Manchester and Leeds who were seeking her emergency care.
She added:
The clinic opened in 2018 and continued providing emergency care during covid.
A dental room and the waiting room at The Harrogate Dentist.
She added:
She said she called on the help of the Stray Ferret to raise awareness so that “no one has to go through this again”.
Update from Northern Powergrid
The Stray Ferret spoke to other businesses in the area who confirmed they too were continuing to experience outages.
A spokesperson for Northern Powergrid confirmed customers in the HG1 area of Harrogate have had their power interrupted by an intermittent fault on the underground low voltage cable, resulting in a blown fuse.
They added:
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