The fire and water damage to Wexford General Hospital is “extensive” and it will be “weeks to months” before it resumes full service, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Wexford County Fire Service received an emergency call regarding a blaze at the 280-bed healthcare facility. There were no casualties or injuries and the fire was brought under control by emergency services that night.
All but 29 of the more than 200 patients who were in the hospital at the time were evacuated and relocated to other healthcare facilities.
Speaking following a tour of the damage to the hospital on Friday afternoon, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said while it will take time to get the facility back up and running fully, that is the objective.
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About half of the hospital’s beds are closed as a result of the fire and the emergency department remains closed. Maternity appointments resumed from 9am on Friday, while outpatient appointments are scheduled to reopen from Monday.
“I’ve given everyone here the assurance that the Government will do everything we can, everything that is humanly possible to support the efforts to get this hospital up and running at full service as soon as it can be done,” he said.
“But with the best will in the world, that’s likely to be weeks to months at this stage.”
Mr Varadkar said most of the hospital is okay and unaffected, but “large parts of the hospital have been affected either by fire or water damage”.
“It is going to require significant construction works, including electrical works, before all those beds can be brought back into use.”
The Health Service Executive was at the hospital on Friday to ascertain the best way forward, Mr Varadkar said.
“You know ... can we bring in a modular build, can we bring in a mobile endoscopy unit. The whole effort is to get services back up and running again as soon as possible. That’s the kind of short-term objective, and then the medium-term objective is to repair the damage and get people back into those clinical spaces.”
“Other hospitals in the regions, both public and private, are helping out. Staff that would normally be working here are working at other hospitals in the region where their patients are and it’s really good to see that happen,” he said.
Mr Varadkar paid tribute to the staff in Wexford and wider afield who “sprang into action” when the fire started.
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Speaking on Friday afternoon, Linda O’Leary, general manager of the hospital, said the hospital will be working towards a “phased reopening [of the emergency department] when we are advised by the technical assessment that it is safe to do so”.
“I would ask the community of Wexford to consider alternative options. Just to be clear, the emergency department is currently closed. If a patient has an emergency, they should contact the emergency services as they normally do and the National Ambulance Service will make a determination as to where is the most suitable location to be brought to,” she added.
A spokesman for hospital management on Friday night said the repatriation process of bringing patients back to the hospital has begun.
“The first patients will come from University Hospital Waterford back to WGH [Wexford General Hospital]. This is the first step in the process which will take several weeks,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman added that while they are aware the emergency department at University Hospital Waterford is “extremely busy”, Caredoc has ensured additional GPs are available out of hours within the Wexford and Waterford area.
