When a fire started in a building’s roof, patients were taken out of a hospital, and an A&E department was shut down.
At at 04:35 BST, a fire broke out in an electrical plant room above the critical care unit at Liverpool’s Aintree University Hospital.
For urgent care, the hospital trust had previously advised patients to “seek alternate therapy,” but it has subsequently reopened.
The primary and backup power supplies for A&E and critical care were destroyed by the fire.
Around 50 individuals from A&E had to be taken outside, while 16 patients in critical care had to be transferred to another area of the hospital.
Smoke has caused damage to several areas of the department.
For urgent and emergency care, the hospital trust had recommended patients to seek alternate care; nevertheless, outpatient visits and scheduled surgeries at the hospital went on as usual.
According to Dr. Jim Gardner, the hospital’s executive medical director, the fire “ripped out the power supply to critical care and the emergency department, as well as the uninterruptable power supply, which is our backup.”
All patients who were evacuated outside, he claimed, were now “back inside.”
I’m happy to report that the A&E department is now fully operational, he remarked.
He also praised the North West Ambulance Service, employees at neighboring hospitals and institutions, and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service and Merseyside Police for their assistance while the A&E department was closed in making sure no patients were hurt and the fire was controlled.
The impact was seen by all local health services, and this will have increased the pressure on already overburdened organizations, he added.
“On arrival, personnel found that a plant building on the top of a three-story structure next to Accident & Emergency was engaged in a fire,” according to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service.
Although the fire has been put out, firefighters are still working in a room that houses batteries.
Ged Kerrigan, the area manager, stated that his team was trying “to get to the underlying cause” of the incident.
According to Dr. Gardner, the batteries require significant repairs that would take “the better part of the week.”
He stated that the hospital may need to “scale down some of our elective surgical activities” as a result of this.
