THERE was chaos in the middle of the night at Great Western Hospital yesterday after a hot water main burst.

Fire crews and a damage control unit from Swindon were called to the hospital at 2.50am to pump water from the hospital after the pipe burst in the new Cath Lab ward on the first floor.

Firefighters remained at the scene until approximately 4am after the burst pipe caused “an amount of flooding”, according to a spokesman for Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service.

As a result of the flooding, the GWH’s new cardiac cathater lab, which was opened just last month was forced to close, however the other cath lab remained open as normal.

A spokesman for the GWH said: “Fortunately we now have two cath lab’s which meant that the flood did not compromise the service to patients.

“Although we never envisaged a flood happening, this is one of the benefits of having two cath labs. If this had happened a few months ago, patients would have had to have been sent elsewhere.

“The new cath lab was forced to close at 3am this morning, and there has been some damage which we are working on getting fixed so it can reopen as soon as possible.”

The physiotherapy department on the floor below the cath lab was also affected by the water and all patients were moved to the Betjeman Centre so appointments could continue as normal.