Swansea: Morriston Hospital on highest alert over broken boiler

Image caption, Engineers are on site at Morriston Hospital

Morriston Hospital has declared it is on its highest alert after suffering a boiler breakdown.

It said engineers were at the Swansea site and that the failure was affecting both heating and hot water.

The hospital has urged patients to attend booked appointments but avoid A&E if possible. It also requested discharged patients be picked up.

A spokesman said everything possible was being done to resolve the "business continuity incident."

They added: "In the meantime, we're conserving existing hot water and heat, making sure extra blankets are available, if needed."

What is a business continuity incident?

The term black alert is sometimes colloquially used to describe this highest escalation, but it is not an official term used by health boards.

Each of Wales' health boards has five levels of escalation which determine the pressure on its services.

Business continuity is the highest level of alert a health board can declare when coping with seasonal pressures.

However, there are exceptional circumstances in which hospitals could declare major or critical incidents.