TWO doctors’ surgeries that serve 6,500 patients in Poole were placed under threat of being closed for a day because of a planned power cut.

Poole Town and Dr Newman’s practices, which share premises in Parkstone Road, were among 166 customers given notice that the electricity supply would be off between 9am and 4pm on April 11 to allow a flats development to be connected to the mains.

Practice manager Emma Bentley rang Southern Electric to protest.

“Without phones, light and hot water, there’s no way we could see patients. We couldn’t practise safely in that environment,” she said.

“The outcome of the conversation was that it wasn’t really their problem. I was disgusted by their attitude.”

Mrs Bentley said closing the surgery would have meant back- to-back doctor’s and practice nurse sessions, and an evening surgery being cancelled.

A spokeswoman for Southern Electric Power Distribution said: “We appreciate it’s an inconvenience but we have given three weeks’ notice so they can put other plans in place.”

But following intervention by the Daily Echo, a Southern Electric employee visited the surgery to offer the loan of a generator.