About 200 orthopaedic operations were postponed at a hospital due to concerns over the standard of surgical equipment.
Patients waiting for hip and knee replacements at the Gartnavel hospital in Glasgow were told their operations would not go ahead.
The Herald newspaper reported that surgical equipment delivered to the hospital theatre was either damaged or the paper wrappings they were transported in ripped, meaning there was no guarantee they were sterile.
The equipment comes from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's decontamination unit at Cowlairs, which serves all hospitals in the city.
The health board confirmed that operations had been delayed last month but said they have now resumed on a "phased basis".
A spokeswoman said: "Patient safety is of paramount importance to us.
"Patients should be reassured that our system of quality checks means that unless surgical equipment is absolutely safe, it will not be used.
"Cowlairs decontamination unit sterilises 12 million items of equipment every year and from time to time there will be isolated instances of damaged or incomplete packs being delivered to our theatre suites.
"We have stringent quality assurance checks in place to ensure that, whenever this is the case, then these packs will not be used."surgery".
The Scotland Patients Association said the situation was "appalling". The group's chair, Dr Jean Turner, told the Herald: "It is unforgivable that management haven't acted to address this before, if doctors have been raising concerns."
