2 September 2009
Peter Coles, the interim Chief Executive of Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust has praised staff for their dedication, professionalism and expertise following a fire at St Helier Hospital last night (1 September). He has also thanked other emergency services involved in dealing with the incident, including the ambulance service, fire brigade and police.
Peter Coles said: "We can confirm that at approximately 5pm last night a major incident was declared at St Helier Hospital when two ambulances caught fire in an internal roadway which runs outside the hospital.
"The London Fire Brigade arrived on the scene very quickly and the fire was extinguished shortly afterwards.
"As part of the hospital's emergency procedures, approximately 100 patients from neighbouring wards were temporarily moved to avoid the smoke. These patients were moved back a couple of hours later.
"Importantly, the impact on the running of the hospital was kept to an absolute minimum thanks to the commitment and hard work of our staff and the other emergency services involved.
"I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank all of the staff who helped manage the incident. Whilst we have robust and well-tested plans in place to deal with this kind of situation, the professionalism, expertise and dedication of our staff make it a lot easier to manage. As a result, those areas affected were back up and running in a couple of hours."
"We are unable to confirm at this time what caused the fire. However, we will be working with the relevant organisations to help understand what happened.
"We can confirm that three members of staff suffered minor injuries and received medical attention in our Accident and Emergency (A&E) department. A member of the fire brigade was also injured and received medical attention from the ambulance service. No other patients, staff or members of the public were injured.
"As part of the incident, the Trust diverted ambulances from the St Helier A&E for two hours from 5.30pm to 7.30pm, with patients being taken directly to other local hospitals, including Epsom."
