PATIENTS and staff at Inverclyde Royal have been left grounded for several weeks due to ongoing problems with hospital lifts.

One has been out of action for over a fortnight and on Friday there were reports that just two of the six lifts were operational.

Rumours had spread round the hospital that the issues was down to failure by hospital chiefs to renew a maintenance and repair deal with a contractor, meaning there was no-one to come in and carry out work.

But bosses from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde strongly today denied the claims and said the delay had been down to the sourcing of specially-made parts.

The health board did acknowledge there was a problem with one of the lifts and said it has taken ‘longer than expected’ to fix.

It means hospital workers, patients and visitors have been hit with longer than usual waits to get to and from wards.

A source told the Tele: “One lift has been out of action for two weeks. It’s broken and looks like it can’t be fixed — it’s been a total nightmare.

“The porters have been using another two, so basically only three have been working.

“There was just one operational on Friday morning.” Health board chiefs said the problem was now in hand and could be resolved by the end of today.

They told the Tele that the necessary parts arrived at the hospital on Friday and said the lift is expected to be fully operational again by the end of the day.

A spokeswoman for NHSGGC said: “We can confirm that a lift at Inverclyde Royal Hospital has been out of commission for a number of weeks.

“Unfortunately the lift required a number of parts which have taken longer than expected.

“These have now been received by the contractor and we expect the lift to be operational very soon.”