Major incident after fire breaks out at hospital

A major incident has been declared at a hospital following a fire.

Southampton General Hospital said the blaze, which has been contained, broke out in the endoscopy unit, in the west wing, at 05:30 GMT.

The hospital said no-one had been injured and patients in all affected areas had been evacuated to safe areas of the site.

Visitors are being asked to stay away and all planned outpatient appointments on Sunday have been cancelled.

The hospital said its emergency department was currently diverting patients away unless their condition was life or limb-threatening.

Chief medical officer Paul Grundy said about 200 patients had been evacuated.

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service said more than 110 firefighters attended the blaze at its peak.

At about 10:00, it said the fire was under control but crews remained on scene to "dampen down".

Patients have been moved to safe areas, including inside the main entrance of the hospital.

Some could be seen in their beds in the lobby, which is usually busy with members of the public.

Grundy said: "Many of us, including myself, had a slightly rude awakening first this morning and were called into the hospital, all hands on deck, to deal with what is a major incident."

"We have all of the clinical teams - doctors, nurses, medics, all the support services - on site, looking after that cohort of patients.

"Those that need a higher acuity support have been moved to the parts of the hospital where we can provide that."

He said many patients were still being nursed in the hospital's corridors "whilst we are looking for a more definitive solution".

Grundy said the sitaution had been "hugely challenging" to manage but there had been meetings "every half an hour or so, teams of people, not just in the hospital - outside the hospital too".

He added: "We've had to move into a divert mode for patients coming into us from other hospitals.

"We're asking for support across the system, so our partner hospitals in this network, other emergency departments are helping us, but also we'll be needing help from other hospitals further afield, specialist services in, for example, Oxford Bristol, Brighton, and so forth."

At 11:00, several fire engines and an incident response unit were still present outside the Coxford Road entrance, with the smell of smoke still hanging in the air.

Emergency services have closed surrounding roads.

The hospital has asking anyone requiring medical attention to use other services in the community, including urgent treatment centres at the Royal South Hants Hospital in Southampton or at Lymington New Forest Hospital.

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Service group manager Larry Mackrell said the fire was now out and crews were carrying out smoke clearance at the building.

"We'll have an attendance here for the foreseeable future but now we're looking to scale down our operations," he said.

"At this stage we don't have any information as to what caused the fire or really what was involved."

He said the fire appeared to have "stayed within the room of ignition".

However, he said there had been "products of combustion smoke" travel throughout the floor, so the impact of the fire had been "significant".

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