KEY POINTS:
North Shore Hospital staff scrambled to get portable heaters to a baby unit yesterday as they dealt with a flood.
The torrent of water from a broken pipe cut heating to the building and threatened medical equipment worth millions of dollars.
Staff and patients were evacuated and ambulances were diverted to Waitakere and Auckland City Hospitals.
A valve on a large heating and hot water pipe burst, sending water through the emergency care, radiation and outpatient areas from 8.20am.
Equipment was being tested last night, and the extent of any damage and how much it will cost to repair had not been assessed.
A contractor who had been working on renovations on the hospital's first floor was treated in the emergency department for minor hot water burns.
The North Shore's acting deputy chief fire officer, Mike McEnaney, said about 40 firefighters from as far away as Ponsonby helped pump water away.
The affected pipe was needed for heating and hot water supplies, sparking immediate action in the special care baby unit, where vulnerable infants need to be kept at precise temperatures.
Staff gathered portable heaters and installed them in the unit.
Hospital personnel said any change in temperature was minor.
Hot water supplies were back to normal within hours, and patients were largely unaffected.
Standing with the aid of crutches outside the outpatients department, Charlotte Clifford, 17, said staff had just started a scan on her pelvis and back, which she broke in a car crash seven weeks ago.
"It was really weird. I was in the tunnel thing and I saw water running down the wall ... They said, 'We're going to have to get you out. The place is flooded'."
Ms Clifford said rubbish bins were being used to collect water dripping down in hallways as patients were evacuated.
Surgeons completed operations, but delayed starting any more non-urgent surgery until early afternoon.
Twenty-six emergency patients were moved to another ward, but 12 others did not have to be shifted because they were in unaffected areas.
Outpatients, many on crutches or wearing plaster casts and one wrapped in a blanket, waited outside for about 30 minutes.
Waitemata District Health Board spokeswoman Bryony Hilless said North Shore Hospital staff were sent to Waitakere Hospital to help treat transferred patients.
Mrs Hilless said the equipment of most concern was the multi-million-dollar CT scanner.
But it appeared to have escaped any damage.
Outpatient services resumed by midday, and by 3pm the hospital was accepting surgical, orthopaedic and gynaecological patients by ambulance if they were referred by doctors.
Radiology services were limited but general x-ray and ultrasound services were back to normal.
Medical patients were still being diverted to Waitakere Hospital yesterday evening.
A St John Ambulance spokesman said patient care was not compromised as a result of the flood.
But the incident was "stretching us a bit" because of the extra time needed to go to other hospitals.
He said all patients aged under 15 in the Waitemata and Auckland boards' districts were taken to the Starship to help alleviate the burden.
Wash-out
* A main heating and hot water pipe at the North Shore Hospital ruptured yesterday morning.
* Water flooded through the emergency care, radiation and outpatient areas.
* Staff and patients were evacuated and ambulances were diverted.
