INMO calls for fire safety inspection of Cork University Hospital after blaze
CUH described it as a small fire, and thanked its staff, the National Ambulance Service, and Cork City Fire Brigade for their quick response. Picture: Larry Cummins
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has called for a fire safety inspection of Cork University Hospital (CUH) following a fire in its overcrowded emergency department (ED).
The union’s assistant director of human relations in Cork and Kerry, Colm Porter, said the hospital could have faced a much more significant event on Wednesday if it had not been for the swift actions of a paramedic who used a fire extinguisher to put the fire out.
“ Overcrowding in the hospital’s ED is well documented but now, for the first time, we are seeing a situation where patients are being placed on trolleys in the corridors of the ward areas of as well,” he said.
“We are now calling for a fire inspection not just of the ED but of the entire hospital, to ensure that patient limits aren’t being breached, that fire exits and fire doors aren’t being blocked, because if they are, that would be a real hazard.”
The alarm was raised just after 1pm on Wednesday when fire broke out in the busy ED, forcing the evacuation of several patients to a secure area and the diversion of several ambulances to the Mercy University Hospital.
Tragedy was averted when a quick-thinking paramedic grabbed a fire extinguisher and put the fire out before two units of Cork City Fire Brigade arrived, and ventilated the area.
The area was declared safe about an hour later. No-one was injured during the incident.
Sources linked the fire to “routine maintenance work” which was being carried out in the ED area at the time.
CUH described it as a small fire and thanked its staff, the National Ambulance Service and Cork City Fire Brigade for their quick response.
The fire brigade praised the paramedic for his quick-thinking and hospital staff for executing a swift and calm evacuation.
But Solidarity TD for Cork North Central, Mick Barry, described the incident as “a serious warning signal”.
“I am concerned that there is a line being pushed that this was a 'small fire'. Anyone who knows anything knows that a small fire can become a big fire very quickly,” he said.
“This near miss at CUH should not be brushed under the carpet. It should instead be taken as a very serious warning signal in my view.”
He said the HSE needs to explain why "routine maintenance" was being done in the ED at the time of year when the department is most overcrowded, and if the work could have been done at some other time.
CUH and Cork City Council, which oversees the fire service, have been asked to comment and responses are awaited.
Fire officers in Limerick carried out an inspection of the overcrowded ED at University Hospital Limerick last week.
According to the INMO’s trolley count, there were 55 people in CUH’s ED at 8am on Wednesday. It’s not clear how many were in the area when the fire broke out.
On Friday, nationally, 438 admitted patients were waiting for a bed — 352 in EDs and 86 in corridors elsewhere in the hospitals.
CUH had 46 people on trolleys — 43 in its ED and three elsewhere — the highest in the country, just one ahead of Tallaght University Hospital, which had 45 people waiting on trolleys, all in its ED.
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