Basement incident sparksfire alert at Altnagelvin

According to the Western Trust the incident affected only the basement plant area. The Trust worked closely with the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) and with engineers who isolated the area affected by the incident.

The Trust initiated a temporary restricted access arrangement in potentially affected areas of the South Wing for non-essential traffic, visitors and staff on Monday.

This affected some outpatient services. A small number of services were affected on Monday. Day patients affected were contacted directly by hospital staff.

However, based on advice received from the fire service the restricted access decision was lifted. No patient or member of staff came to any harm as a result of the incident. It’s almost a year since 120 patients had to be relocated from seven wards during a fire incident at Altnagelvin.

The incident last year centred on a fire on the roof of the hospital.