A north hospital may go without a phone line and internet for more than a week after a vehicle crashed into a roadside junction box and cut off the connection.
Lawson Memorial Hospital in Golspie has had no telephone or IT network since the incident on Sunday.
The accident led to significant damage to a nearby roadside BT cable cabinet and network distribution point. Due to the severity of the damage BT has given notice that services may not be resumed before next Tuesday.
NHS Highland has implemented contingency plans to provide limited alternative telephone and network connectivity at the hospital, including the use of mobile phones and fax machines.
Temporary contact numbers are now in place.
For hospital related inquiries call 07769 673085, for social work and social care inquiries call 07966 915996 and for care at home inquiries call 07500 105893.
Some Lawson Memorial staff are being relocated to alternative offices at Golspie Health Centre and Migdale Hospital in Bonar Bridge, both of which are unaffected by the cable fault.
A NHS Highland spokeswoman said: “NHS Highland would like to reassure the public that measures are being taken to limit any inconvenience caused by the outage and the hospital will continue to deliver non urgent services.
“We do ask that wherever possible telephone calls to the hospital are limited unless deemed absolutely necessary until the problem is resolved.”