PATIENTS were left frustrated when all phone lines to Braintree Community Hospital went down – for eight days.
All 12 departments listed on the website and the main reception could not be contacted after a software problem caused the phones to stop working on Friday, August 9.
An alternative mobile number was posted on the hospital's Twitter feed but this went straight to answerphone, with many messages left unreturned.
A patient's wife said: "I had a letter saying we needed to book an urgent appointment but couldn't get through and when we went back to the GP even he couldn't get though."
The NHS hospital is run by Serco, a private company.
A Serco spokesman said: "There have been problems with installing new software to support the telephone system, which has caused major disruption. We apologise for that and for any problems that patients and their families or carers have experienced."
The phone lines were running again on Saturday morning after software was reinstalled and patient liaison officers were trying to contact people directly to deal with their queries.
