A UNIT that sterilises hospital equipment has re-opened after being closed for more than a week due to safety concerns resulting in hundreds of operations being cancelled.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it would take some time for the Cowlairs decontamination unit in Springburn to be fully operational.
At least 700 operations have been cancelled so far with 159 procedures postponed on Friday and more affected on Monday.
The health board said it was hoped the situation would begin to improve following the re-opening of the unit. Extra theatre sessions are being arranged to help tackle the backlog.
A spokesman for the board said it would be writing to patients affected to apologise and said operations would be re-sheduled "as soon as possible."
A spokesman for NHSGGC said: "Following the news of the re-certification of Cowlairs by our quality assurance advisors, we are in the final stages of our own internal environmental testing.
"The satisfactory results from the testing that has been completed so far have enabled Cowlairs to re-open today on a phased basis and work is now underway to bring the unit back into full production.
"It will take some days for the unit to return to its previous levels of activity. This will allow planned activity to take place, alongside the emergency, trauma and urgent cases that have been prioritised throughout the past week.
"In the meantime, we continue to be supported by the unit at Inverclyde and by other Health Boards and we remain grateful for this assistance.
"Regrettably, we had to postpone 159 planned operations due to take place on Friday.
"Further planned operations, due to take place today, are also being postponed. With the re-opening of the unit, it is anticipated the situation will now begin to improve.
"We are writing to those affected to apologise and to reassure them we will be looking to re-appoint them as soon as possible.
"We will be arranging additional theatre sessions to enable us to see patients as quickly as possible without impacting on other planned procedures."
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