Stephen Donnelly vows to ‘fund and support’ Wexford hospital in aftermath of major fire

More than 100 ambulances were involved in evacuating around 200 patients from the hospital overnight after the fire broke out at 4pm on Wednesday.

No injuries were caused by the fire, and the remaining patients are in a “safe” part of the building which did not sustain significant damage, according to the hospital’s clinical lead, Professor Obada Yousif.

In a statement on Thursday, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly announced that he had visited the scene of the blaze to see the damage for himself.

He said that while the extent of the damage is still being assessed, more than half the inpatient beds have been affected, as well as Wexford General Hospital’s maternity services and critical care units.

“I visited Wexford Hospital today to see first hand the damage to the building from the fire,” Mr Donnelly said in the social media post.

“Firstly, thank God we’ve had no casualties. I would like to acknowledge the extraordinary emergency response and secondly, the response from the wider healthcare service. Waterford, Kilkenny, Dublin hospitals, local nursing homes – they’ve all responded right through the night to free up capacity to take patients in.

“This is an unprecedented situation. The response from staff, emergency services, the gardaí, the national ambulance service, everyone involved, it was quiet extraordinary.

“We don’t have a full picture of the extent of the damage just yet. What we do know is that the area affected includes more than half the inpatient beds. It includes endoscopy. It includes maternity services, critical care.

“Critical care was thankfully quite a bit away from the fire itself, but obviously there are connecting pipes and things which may have been compromised.

“What we’ll see now is an assessment of the structural integrity of the hospital, the mechanical systems, electrical systems, machinery.

“It will take some time, I think, before we have an assessment of how quickly we can get the services back up and running and of course what it will cost”.

Mr Donnelly said the Government will ensure that “all funding and other supports” will be made available right away to get the hospital back up and running.

“The team at the hospital is absolutely focused on getting as many services back up and running for the people of Wexford as quickly as they possibly can,” he said.

“My message to them this morning was that we will make sure that all funding and all other supports required will be provided to the hospital.

“The government’s focus now is getting the services back up and running and getting the hospital back open and then expanding services and expanding beds in the hospital”.

Meanwhile, Tánaiste Micheál Martin has pledged to rebuild the hospital “from the ashes”.

“I would like to think that from the ashes of this fire we will rebuild properly in a modern context and create a 21st century facility in Wexford,” the Fianna Fáil leader said.

“We should take the opportunity in the contest of a rebuild to achieve additional capacity, as committed – because the population is growing.

Meanwhile, Wexford Fire Service is investigating whether an equipment fault led to the fire at Wexford General Hospital (WGH) yesterday afternoon.

A major emergency was declared after the fire broke out in the hospital’s machinery room at around 4pm.

Emergency services worked through the night to contain the damage.