Fire at Northwick Park Hospital (6.30pm Thursday 12 February)
12-Feb-2009
Press statement 4
Patients have started moving into some of the wards affected by yesterday’s fire at Northwick Park Hospital.
Staff at the hospital have been busy cleaning two of the wards, Frederick Salmon and the Regional Rehabilitation Unit (RRU), and are now helping patients settle back in. Four wards remain closed.
The A&E department at Northwick Park Hospital is open to ambulances and walk-in patients but GP referrals to the hospital are still being directed to Central Middlesex Hospital. There is now capacity to admit some children.
Some routine operations will be taking place at Northwick Park. Patients are being contacted if their operation is taking place at other hospitals.
Patients with outpatient appointments at the adjacent St Mark’s Hospital and cardiology tomorrow are being advised to go to the main outpatient reception area at Northwick Park.
Parts of the hospital continue to be powered by generators and this will be the case for some time.
Chief Executive of The North West London Hospitals NHS Trust, Fiona Wise, said: “We hope to be nearer to being fully operational by tomorrow afternoon and the challenge now is for us to re-organise those appointments that we have had to cancel and we want to do this as soon as possible.
“Again I would like to thank all our patients and visitors for their understanding and to my staff, emergency services and other agencies who have helped us.”
ENDS.