Weston Area Health NHS Trust (WAHT) has declared an ‘internal critical incident’ due to the failure of its IT servers in the early hours of this morning (Thursday).

Staff computers and all digital screens for patients have been down since 3am.

The hospital has resorted to using hand-written paper signs as makeshift noticeboards to help patients with appointments.

WAHT has cancelled non-urgent elective activity today.

Engineers are on site to rectify the problem and systems are expected to return to normal by noon.

A hospital spokesman told the Mercury: “We are experiencing problems with our computer systems due to an IT failure.

“Patient care is not affected but delays could be experienced.

“We urge any walk-in patients with minor injuries to instead consider going to Clevedon or Bridgwater and to only visit the hospital for scheduled appointments or in an emergency.

“Screens in waiting rooms and staff computers are all down but we are hoping to have things up and running again by noon.”

*UPDATE 2.30PM* Weston General’s IT system remains down, with hospital bosses confirming the failure is due to overheating in the server room.

A spokesman added: “Thank you for your understanding and to our staff for their exceptional work continuing to deliver high-quality care.

“Our A&E department is still very busy and our switchboard is experiencing a high level of calls.

“We apologise for any delays.”