Wirral University Teaching Hospital has moved to reassure the public, after its patient IT systems went down this afternoon.

An early report suggested that the Trust's whole IT system had been disrupted, with people being turned away from Arrowe Park Hospital's Accident & Emergency Department as a result, but the Globe can confirm that this is not the case.

A Wirral University Teaching Hospital spokesperson said: “Our patient IT system has been disrupted today following planned maintenance of our Cerner Millennium electronic patients’ records.

“We have back up plans in place for this eventuality and all clinical areas have downtime paper-based packs as part of our business continuity plans.

“WUTH’s hospitals (Arrowe Park, Clatterbridge and the Wirral Women and Children’s Hospitals) are not closed.

"The Emergency Department and several other areas like Outpatients, Maternity etc. are open as usual and the hospitals are also accepting referrals from GPs as normal.

“Continuity of patient care remains WUTH’s utmost priority."

The system is expected to be fixed by tomorrow morning (Friday, July 23).