Concerns have been raised after the NHS Tayside suffered a major computer server fault this week.

Although no patients were affected, the crash meant that computers at the Accident and Emergency department at Ninewells Hospital were down.

The fault, that took around 12 hours to fix, also impacted on a system that allows doctors and other medical staff to access lab results.

Shona Singers, head of communications for NHS Tayside, said: "A major server fault happened and while our out-of-hours IT support tried to resolve the problem, staff working in the centre immediately started to use their back-up manual system.

"There was absolutely no effect on patient care and the IT system was back up and running late Sunday morning."

The incident has highlighted the importance of insuring that proper IT support systems are in place both among businesses and other organisations.

Last week, it was revealed that emergency shutdowns had to be carried out on Fife local council's computer system after crash threatened to cause huge disruptions.

Research for Connect in 2007 found that 88 per cent of UK businesses were interested in Disaster Recovery systems primarily to protect their critical applications and data.