LAST UPDATE | 2 Mar 2023
MATERNITY SERVICES WILL resume at Wexford General Hospital tomorrow following yesterday’s fire that led to the evacuation of over 200 patients.
Ireland East Hospital Group confirmed in a statement that the services will recommence at 9am tomorrow.
Any expectant mothers who have questions in relation to their care in WGH’s maternity unit can ring the labour ward on 053 915 3368.
Outpatient appointments will also recommence from Monday morning.
Nobody was injured in the fire but more than 200 patients had to be evacuated from the building in a major response from emergency services.
In an update this afternoon, the Ireland East Hospital Group that oversees WGH said that 29 patients remain in the building and will remain in the hospital for treatment.
The group said the assessment of the affected area of the hospital is ongoing.
“WGH would like to clarify that despite some media reports, there is no confirmed on the cause of the fire. Assessment teams are still inspecting the site to establish the source and location of the fire,” it said.
Wexford General Hospital is a 280-bed hospital and provides inpatient, outpatient, day care, outreach and emergency services.
Outpatients and elective appointments at WGH are cancelled today and Friday. Ely Hospital remains open and all appointments there will proceed as normal.
The Accident and Emergency Department is closed in WGH. People who require emergency care can attend their closest alternative A&E.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the fire “has been a terrible shock” for patients, staff, and the wider Wexford community.
He intends to visit the hospital tomorrow to see the damage for himself and discuss how quickly services can be restored.
The hospital’s senior management expects a report from technical assessors by the end of the day about the extent of the damage that the hospital has suffered, according to Clinical Lead Professor Obada Yousif.
“This will enable us to reassess which services we can re-establish and reinstate as quickly as we have the information,” he said on RTÉ’s News at One.
General Manager Linda O’Leary added that “we need to ensure we have electrical integrity, that we can provide medical gases, that we have piped oxygen available, that we have everything we need to operate as a fully functioning hospital”.
Wexford County Council has confirmed that the fire appeared to have started in the plant room area of the hospital. A plant room contains mechanical equipment such as boilers and water pumps.
Security has been placed at the gates by the hospital as it is now closed to the public, unless staff or family members of maternity patients are trying to enter.
Local county councillor George Lawlor told The Journal last night that some of his family were due to start night duty before the fire broke out.
“My daughter was deployed to bring patients to Navan in an ambulance when she came on last night. It was all just remarkable – you had ambulances here from all parts of the country, including voluntary ambulance groups just turning up on request to assist.”
Meanwhile, one local man in Wexford town said he was waiting to hear how long his mother would be away in Enniscorthy after she was transferred by ambulance there last night during the evacuation.
Lawlor, who chairs Wexford County Council, said this was the next stage in the fallout from the “disaster”.
He said: “The coming days will be trying in terms of how long will people have to remain away from home here in Wexford. The liaising with the hospital has been quite good today though, so people do seem to have been able to find out where their loved one is and what hospital they have been brought to.”
Security at the entrance of #Wexford hospital earlier - just 29 patients remain for treatment in an unaffected part of the building.
— Eoghan Dalton (@EoghanDalton) March 2, 2023
One woman who is a maternity outpatient told @thejournal_ie it was 'business as usual' inside her section of the hospital today. pic.twitter.com/SroL1cvBEb
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly also promised “quicker” momentum on plans for a new 96-bed block in the hospital that have been on the agenda for years.
Donnelly praised the “extraordinary” response from the emergency services as patients were moved to other hospitals around the country.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland, Donnelly said that some areas of the hospital have been hit by substantial smoke and water damage, with some pipes on the way to the critical care unit possibly cracked.
“We’ll have to wait for the experts to say how extensive the damage is but the areas affected are substantial,” he said.
The affected areas include around half of inpatient beds, critical care, and endoscopy, among others, he said, while some areas less impacted are the emergency department, critical care, and day services.
“The hospital is already talking about the services they can get back up and running” but “in terms of inpatient beds, some of that is going to take time to put back together”, the minister said.
A new 96-bed block has been planned at Wexford General Hospital for years but has still to break ground.
“It takes far too long in Ireland to build hospital beds,” Donnelly said today.
“However, we do know from Covid that it’s possible to do them a lot quicker. Kilkenny for example, because of Covid they got a planning derogation, they built a 72-bed block in nine months, state of the art,” he said.
I am not satisfied at the pace that these blocks normally take.
“What what I can tell you is not only have I spoken to the hospital management today about putting that block in place quickly and not only do we know where it’s going to be, the commitment from me and from government is we’re going to do it quicker than these things normally happen.”
Wexford Fine Gael TD Paul Kehoe has called on the minister to “expedite” the building of the block.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin told the Dáil this afternoon that the fire in Wexford Hospital was a “big blow” to health services in the southeast.
“It will have an impact on existing services,” Martin said, adding that “everything that can be done, will be done”.
He said that he was conscious of the need to get services back up and running as soon as possible and that a modern hospital needed to be properly created “from the ashes of this fire”.
We are very focused and conscious of the need to get services back as quickly as we can.
“It will be challenging, there’s no point in saying it will not but I would like to think that from the ashes of this fire, as we rebuild, we do it properly and in a modern context build a 21st century facility in Wexford.”
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the fire “has been a terrible shock” to all those affected and thanked the staff and emergency personnel who evacuated the hospital, saying they “fought the blaze valiantly”.
“I want to assure everyone that the Government will do whatever is required now in the aftermath of this emergency,” he said.
“To patients who find themselves today in unfamiliar surroundings, we will seek to have you home as soon as possible.
We should not underestimate the scale of the challenge facing us and full restoration of all services might take some time. The HSE assures us that emergency services will continue in the region, but from other locations, and anyone with an emergency should not attend Wexford General Hospital.
“They should instead seek their nearest alternative emergency department or urgent care centre. All maternity services have been transferred to Waterford, elective services have been deferred for this week and will be back as soon as possible.”
Former Labour leader and Wexford TD Brendan Howlin said in the Dáil that there was “a palpable sense of relief in Wexford this morning”.
He said that what could have been a “historic tragedy was averted by the calm, dedicated professionalism of the emergency services in Wexford”.
George Lawlor described a “war-like effort” from emergency services and groups such as the Order of Malta, the Irish Red Cross, the Civil Defence and Lifeline Ireland.
“It was a logistical nightmare in reality and it’s remarkable that we’re down to a figure of 30 patients, ” he said, speaking on Morning Ireland.
There were “patients who were in intensive care, mothers with babies in incubators, newborn babies”.
“It’s been a remarkable operation and to say that we had no casualty and no one badly affected or any injuries is a testament to the statutory and voluntary services here in the county of Wexford.”
Raising the issue during Leaders’ Questions, Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty said it was important that communication between the hospital and families was maintained.
“As we know, it may be some time before full service resumes at Wexford and appointments and procedures have necessarily been cancelled and until it’s safe for them to proceed,” he said.
“The disruption will undoubtably cause much distress and anxiety to people in Wexford and indeed to the surrounding region.”
He asked that families were kept fully informed, particularly the families of people who had been transported to hospitals some distance from Wexford.
Patients have been moved University Hospital Waterford, St. Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny, St. Vincent’s Hospital, the Mater Hospital and Cork University Hospital.
The General Manager of St Luke’s Hospital Anne Slattery told KCLR that 16 patients were transferred there, all of whom are stable.
Slattery said that Kilkenny will be on standby as Waterford is now the main point for emergency services in the region.
She described how the situation could have become one that was “catastrophic”.
The National Ambulance Service has said the fire has disrupted its services, particularly in the south east of the country, and asked the public to consider other options before calling an ambulance unless it is an emergency.
The situation in Wexford General Hospital has caused disruption to our service, particularly for those in the South East. We ask that you consider all options open to you before calling us. Please do still call 112 or 999 in the case of real emergencies. pic.twitter.com/Q1xncXc6ve
— National Ambulance Service 🇮🇪🚑 (@AmbulanceNAS) March 2, 2023
Nursing Homes Ireland CEO Tadhg Daly said the organisation contacted the HSE “immediately on hearing of the fire to confirm that local nursing homes stand ready to support and facilitate the care of patients evacuated from Wexford General Hospital where appropriate”.
“NHI remains engaged with the HSE to provide support for patients who can have their healthcare needs met within nursing homes within communities in Wexford and beyond.”
A helpline is operating for family members of patients to access information on 053 915 3012.
Wexford General Hospital is located on the Newtown Road, Carricklawn, a residential area, 2km outside Wexford Town.
Additional reporting by Eoghan Dalton (at the scene in Wexford), Tadgh McNally, Hayley Halpin and Press Association
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