Oban hospital cancels all planned operations following 'significant water ingress'

A hospital has cancelled all planned operations for the rest of the week following flooding in the operating theatres.

Oban’s Lorn and the Islands Hospital informed patients that the “difficult decision” was made to ensure the safety of any surgeries carried out.

The NHS Highland medical facility says that plans are in place to make sure that any emergency operations can take place.

Work is underway to fix the issue but patients have been warned surgeries due to be carried out next week could also be cancelled.

A statement from the hospital read: “We have recently experienced significant water ingress in our theatres at Lorn and Islands Hospital and as the safety of any surgery is our priority we have had to take the difficult decision to cancel all planned operations for the rest of this week and patients have been informed.

“Contingency plans have however been implemented to ensure that we can continue to provide emergency surgery.

“Work is currently underway to resolve this issue however at this time we do not have a definitive date for completion and planned operations for next week may also need to be cancelled and those patients who may be affected have been informed of the situation.

“We are currently keeping this under review and if a decision has to be taken to cancel further operations then we will inform patients as soon as we can. We would like to apologise to everyone affected for the inconvenience and distress that this may have caused.”