Hospital on Fire!
Just as everyone is whinging about going back to work, I am finally getting four whole days to myself. I only managed two complete days off between December 21st and today… so I was looking enviously on at everyone else enjoying the post-Christmas and New Year Festivities (more on the latter later) and eagerly looking forward to joining in… only to find it’s too late and everyone is busy taking their trees down! Damnit. Who’d be a shift worker?!
I was hoping for a q-u-i-e-t shift yesterday. It was my last one, and having changed from days to nights and back again in the space of four days, my body clock had packed up and I was half asleep. Still, a chilly Wednesday at the beginning of January - there wouldn’t be much going on, would there?
Wrong.
“Hello, it’s the fire brigade here. We’ve got an eight pump fire going on.”
“Okay. What’s the address?”
“It’s the Royal Marsden Hospital…”
Well, that woke me up.
“The fire’s in the roof. At the moment there’s no casualties, but we’re going to need an ambulance on standby…”
Funnily enough, these words didn’t make me feel any better. It was the exact phrase the fire brigade had used to me at 8.53am on July 7th, 2005, two minutes after bombs killed 52 people and injured 700 others. Don’t ask me why I always get these calls! Perhaps the powers that be should stop putting me on call taking if they want to avoid major incidents.
The Royal Marsden is a medium sized hospital in Fulham, which specialises in cancer treatment. There is no A+E there, but there are operating theatres, wards and outpatient clinics. At the time of the fire, there were around 900 people in the hospital - including around 40 bedridden inpatients and two under general anaesthetic.
The dispatch desk sent the requested ambulance, along with a manager and the HART (Hazardous Area Response Team) vehicles. The manager was quick to report back with what was both good and bad news. The hospital had quickly been evacuated and no one had been hurt. This meant there were now 900 people standing outside on the icy streets, many of whom were seriously ill cancer patients. The doctors and nurses - some just in their surgical scrubs - were busily ferrying them into a nearby church to protect them from the cold. The manager requested another nine ambulances while beds in nearby hospitals were found for the patients. Those patients that could be were sent home, but many were far too ill for that. The ten ambulances spent the afternoon going back and forth, taking patients all over London.
Call taking became a bit hectic after that. Of course, we weren’t getting calls about the fire itself, but being ten ambulances short for an entire afternoon lead to delays, particularly in the west and central areas. As vehicles moved out of their areas to cover, the shortfall was felt all over London. It wasn’t so bad that we had to refuse any calls like we did on 7/7, but response times were definitely slower than you’d expect.
The response of callers was an interesting insight into human nature. I must admit I quite liked having a ‘proper’ answer to the ‘why isn’t the ambulance here NOW?’ type questions. Terribly sorry, but we’re having difficulty finding someone to deal with your bellyache because there’s a hospital full of critically ill cancer patients on fire and we’re out SAVING LIVES like we’re meant to. Not everyone knew about the fire, and some people were incredibly apologetic. One woman, a perpetually drunk regular caller, seemed absolutely mortified when I told her, and was silenced for the first time in her entire life. Others were understanding and offered to make their own way to free up ambulances for the fire. Others, on the other hand, made me sick to the core with their selfishness. “I don’t care about the fire, what about me? You have to get here NOW.” If there was an award for selfishness, there’d be two callers fighting for it. A nurse at another hospital, who was waiting for an ambulance for a routine transfer, so she could go home. And a first aider in a well-known department store, who rang because a child had cut his foot and couldn’t walk properly. Sometimes I feel I am going to lose my temper with these kinds of people. I’m glad I don’t have to do call taking so often these days as I definitely feel I had done my time listening to the stupid and selfish.
Griping about The Public aside, though, I went home with a general sense of relief. It may have been a hectic afternoon but it could have been so much worse. The incident was winding down and all the patients were safe in their new hospitals. The outcome could have been so different.
on January 3rd, 2008 at 3:25 pm
I thought of you when I heard about the fire and wondered if you’d be involved. Do you know what happened to the two patients who were in surgery at the time?
on January 3rd, 2008 at 3:37 pm
They were fine. I’m not sure what stage of surgery they were at, but I imagine they woke up in a different hospital without a clue that anything was wrong!
on January 3rd, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Well done also to the 30 members of St John Ambulance that provided 13 A&E ambulance and 2 response motorcycles to assist the LAS fleet.
And also to the unknown numbers of on-call members that were standing-by in LDHQ in case further deployment was required.
It goes to show, major incident plans work extremely well.
on January 3rd, 2008 at 7:37 pm
I was at the fire. I don’t remember 900 people, I’m sure I would have seem them! Also, there were only 2 hospitals used and they wouldn’t have taken anywhere near that many patients.
Where were all these SJA wagons? I saw one motorbike in SW6 and one in SE1.
The hospitals own transport misfits were of more use to us and they were excellent.
Check your facts and figures before you post!!
on January 3rd, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Myth Destroyer - The BBC report gives the 900 figure. That was including staff and outpatients, in case I didn’t make it clear. I believe it was only the 100 or so inpatients who were moved to other hospitals. Several other hospitals including the Brompton, St Mary’s, Chelsea & Westminster and the other Royal Marsden in Sutton were receiving patients.
I have no idea about the SJA involvement. I didn’t hear anything about it at work, but then I wouldn’t as I was only a call taker, but I did get an email asking for the assistance of SJA crews, so I have no reason to believe Matt is making it up.
There. Facts and figures checked. Any more complaints?
on January 3rd, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Check out - http://www.sja.org.uk/sja/about-us/latest-news/royal-mardsen-hospital-fire.aspx
My other figures come from internal sources, which I obviously can’t post onto a public website such as this.
The callout did happen, via email, sms & even Facebook yesterday afternoon.
Also, I don’t believe St John Ambulance was directly involved in the hospital evacuation. To my knowledge, the vehicles and members were providing support to LAS generally, like they have done most of the xmas period.
on January 3rd, 2008 at 11:19 pm
I believe you actually took the second call to this and we were already on scene - don’t want to take credit away from that first calltaker!!. Luckily there weren’t that many pats transfered to other hospitals although a few were put on standby before LAS knew the extent of the incident.
SJA were absolute stars - they came in and covered the sector so that our ambulances could deal with the fire - hence you didn’t see any at the actual fire. Couldn’t give them more credit - they were still on the desk after changeover and the crews from the fire had been stood down. Big horah for all of you.
on January 3rd, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Yep, that’s right. I think the first call taker just got “there’s a fire” and I got the gory details!
on January 5th, 2008 at 10:06 am
I had to call an ambulance for my not-quite-elderly mum when she collapsed that afternoon. It was felt quite surreal watching her being treated and hearing the helicopter circling overhead, knowing what was going on nearby.
I thought I’d better de-lurk, as I’ve been reading your blog for a while now and really like it. People offering my mum water when she was unconscious reminded me of something on your blog ages ago, which I found quite amusing, considering the situation. I hope you get the time to update it more often this year, it’s quite educational for the non-medical public, you know!
on January 6th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Interesting job!
What a start to 2008. Happy New Year!
Mousie x
on January 6th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
[…] Nee Naw (who works for the London Ambulance Service) writes about the recent fire at the Royal Marsden Hospital, and how some people thought that rescuing seriously ill cancer patients from a burning hospital was less important than their own needs: “If there was an award for selfishness, there’d be two callers fighting for it. A nurse at another hospital, who was waiting for an ambulance for a routine transfer, so she could go home. And a first aider in a well-known department store, who rang because a child had cut his foot and couldn’t walk properly”. Personally I think the LAS should publish on their website the most ridiculous, selfish and timewasting calls they get and invite people to vote on which is the most absurd. […]
on January 9th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Take the first call on July 7th did you? Hmmm. Been at the bullshit pills again have we?
on January 9th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Check the logs and see who took the first call…
on January 9th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
That’s funny, I have all the logs in front of me at the moment and the person that took the first call on 7/7 no longer works in EOC.
on January 9th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Really? What about the call to Liverpool Street at 8.53am? Who was the person invited to 10 Downing Street to meet Tony Blair because they took the first call on 7/7? Would you like me to send you the photo?
on January 10th, 2008 at 1:01 am
No love, but you have just given away who you are you saddo!!!!!!!!!
on January 10th, 2008 at 6:32 am
Oh, do keep up. Everyone else worked out who I was years ago.
Now I’ve proved that I did take the first call on 7/7, perhaps you’d like to apologise for randomly steaming in and calling me a liar instead of calling me names for no good reason? You know, you’re going through other people’s blogs and trying to pick holes in what they’ve written and being generally rude without even knowing who they are talking to… and you have the nerve to call ME a “saddo”!
on January 10th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Well said.
on January 12th, 2008 at 1:53 am
And also, given that this is a pretty well known blog, it’s dead easy to check details like that. If it was a lie, it would be found out quickly!
on January 13th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
I guess some people feel bitter about not getting the “glory” (so to speak)
Well said Mark
on January 16th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Truth Teller, shut up you bastard! No-one cares what you think here, and how the hell have you got the nerve to call Mark a ’saddo’, you are the sad little twat who spends his spare time reading through peoples blogs and trying to pick out a little spelling they got wrong two and a half years ago… Get a life you sad, waste of space!!
on January 16th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Hattie, I couldn’t have put it better myself. Thanks