A Scottish health board was forced to declare a major incident after one of its hospitals suffered a power outrage, placing additional strain on neighbouring health centres.
NHS Ayrshire and Arran has confirmed that University Hospital Crosshouse, near Kilmarnock, lost power in the early hours of Sunday March 6, temporarily affecting services.
Some patients were redirected to University Hospital Ayr around 16 miles away, prompting managers at the beleaguered facility to ask off-duty staff if they would consider coming in to help while services were restored.
While the power has been restored at Crosshouse, some departments across the NHS estate are continuing to experience IT and phone issues several hours later.
An NHS source said: "Managers messaged all staff who are off with a plea for help. Crosshouse had no power whatsoever so all of the patients were diverted to Ayr.
"Phone lines weren't working and even the computers went down."
Other health services including NHS 24 and NHS Lanarkshire were also called upon to provide extra support.
Dr Crawford McGuffie, NHS Ayrshire and Arran's medical director, has stressed that the outage did not place any patients at risk of harm.
He said: "An emergency response was swiftly mounted in keeping with emergency planning arrangements both from a clinical and infrastructure perspective. The power has now been fully restored.
"Contingency plans have been in place to minimise any disruption and ensure safety of patients. There have been no concerns identified in relation to patient safety or patient harm.
"Our Emergency Departments at both University Hospital Crosshouse and University Hospital Ayr remain operational as do our Combined Assessment units on both sites."
Dr McGuffie has also asked locals to be patient as services are restored.
The recovery of the administrative systems have placed additional pressures on services and we ask our citizens to be understanding if they have had to access services in a different way during this time or have been impacted otherwise.
"Our Emergency Departments are busy this morning, so please only attend if you require emergency care.
"Otherwise there may be services that can treat you quicker and closer to home – call NHS 24 on 111 for advice on the best way to access appropriate care."
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