People hoping to book appointments at Royal Papworth Hospital today (Tuesday) have faced disruption after the trust that runs the facility was forced to relocate some of its staff.

A collapsed sewer caused flooding near Royal Papworth House, on the Ermine Business Park, in Huntingdon, which is home to the hospital's appointments team.

As a result, the Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said it would be transporting members of the team to the hospital site, in Cambridge, with disruption to the appointment system as a result.

One man, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Hunts Post he had been trying to call for several hours and only found out about the problem at Papworth when he called Addenbrooke's Hospital to see what was going on.

He said: "I was trying to call on behalf of a relative but in the end I called the Addenbrooke's site and they said 'yes, there are problems'. I think there is a lot of frustration. Papworth is a national hospital so it is a concern."

A spokesman for the hospital trust said: "Following a collapsed sewer near to our building in Huntingdon, there had been localised flooding in some areas of our office. "As a safety procedure, we are moving our appointments team to Royal Papworth Hospital - this has led to a temporary interruption in our booking system.

"This will be back up and running later this afternoon once staff have arrived in Cambridge.

"We would like to reassure our patients that this incident is not the impacting on the operational functions of the hospital on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and we are doing everything we can to ensure the appointment system is operational as soon as possible."