NURSES had to manually ventilate patients on life-support machines after a power failure at a hospital.

The lights went out at the £67m Bishop Auckland General Hospital, in County Durham, during routine tests on back-up generators.

Although the interruption lasted only six minutes, emergency procedures had to be adopted in the intensive treatment unit to ensure patients did not suffer any discomfort.

Bosses said nurses were extremely well trained to cope during power cuts and staff responded well on this occasion.

It is the third time the Bishop Auckland hospital has had problems with its electricity supply in the past two years.

In the first incident, in June 2002, electricians working on the newly-built hospital received severe shocks.

As a result, it was decided to modify electrical devices, slightly delaying the opening.

In the second incident, in May last year, the hospital experienced a 20-minute power cut after electrical switching gear malfunctioned.

Yesterday, a spokesman for County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: "There was a six-minute interruption at 6.30pm on Wednesday, September 15. This happened during routine mandatory testing work on the generators, which normally involves a much shorter power interruption.

"An investigation is underway to establish the reason."