Shocking video in NHS hospital shows toilets overflowing and taps running dry with patients given bottled water after supply ran out

AN NHS hospital was left without water for FOUR hours last night, with bosses having to urgently ship bottled water in for desperate patients.

Toilets at Leicester Royal Infirmary were even left overflowing, and patients were unable to clean themselves in the chaotic scenes.

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The incident was triggered when a water tank broke down.

This left no water coming from taps, and toilets were overflowing with human waste and tissues.

Ismail Patel, a 29-year-old former Royal Marine who is now a wheelchair user after standing on an IED in Somalia, was visiting his 61-year-old mum when the scene unfolded.

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He said: "I got to the ward and everyone was saying there was no water and none of the toilets in the entire hospital were flushing.

"When I went to go to the toilet there was human waste which hadn't been flushed away and there was no water in the taps.

"I went to disabled toilets in the Balmoral and Windsor buildings and it was the same there.

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"It's not very hygienic if you can't flush the toilet or wash your hands afterwards.

"It was between three and four hours that there was no water then it suddenly came back on.

"The nurses did the best they could and brought in bottled water for patients.

"They were filling up patients' water jugs with packs of one litre bottles of water.

"I asked the ward staff 'what is going on?' but they just said the senior staff were too busy to speak to me about it."

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University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, which runs Leicester Royal Infirmary, said the issue was the result of a "mechanical failure".

Director of facilities Darryn Kerr said: "We experienced a mechanical failure with our main water tank at the royal infirmary, which meant we lost water for a couple of hours.

"The facilities team quickly enacted our contingency plans to fix the tank and get the water supply up

and running again.

"The tank has now been refilled and everything has returned to normal.

"This has not had any effect on patient care and we made bottled water available to our patients and staff as soon as we were aware of the problem."