A rat caused around 40 operations to be cancelled at a hospital after it was found in an operating theatre.
Pest controllers were called into King's Mill Hospital in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, after the rodent was found.
A hospital spokeswoman said they took immediate action after the rodent was discovered in a decomissioned operating theatre in the early hours of Monday last week.
All surgical procedures were halted at the hospital the following day and around 40 patients had their operations rearranged while the entire theatre area was cleansed and the pest control called in, she said.
Karen Tomlinson, Director of Operations at the hospital, said: "We are proud of our services and the extremely high quality of care we offer to our patients, so we were extremely shocked to learn that there was evidence of a rodent having entered a decommissioned operating theatre during the night, at a time when the department was not in use.
"As soon as we became aware of this fact the following morning, we immediately took steps to thoroughly clean and sterilise the entire theatre area and called in external pest control experts to completely eradicate the problem.
"Whilst this work was under way, all surgical procedures were halted for one day and just over 40 patients had their operations rearranged. We have apologised to any patients affected for the inconvenience caused.
"I would like to reassure any concerned patient or relative that this was a minor, one-off incident that occurred over a week ago.
"We took immediate and comprehensive action to rectify matters and to restore services with the minimum of disruption. We are fully operational again. There is no cause for concern."