24 May 2018

Trust statement - Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre

UPDATE: 15.30 - 24/05/2018

Following the fire which took place on 10 May, the majority of services are up and running again at the Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre (BHOC). This includes outpatient clinics, chemotherapy services and inpatient care, which have all returned to the building.

This is thanks to the sterling efforts of staff across the Trust who have worked tirelessly to maintain services displaced from the BHOC while we also conducted a major clean-up operation. We are also grateful to our NHS partner organisations for their invaluable support.

This has been a very difficult time for affected patients and their families, as well as for our staff; we thank them all for their understanding in these exceptional circumstances.

Cleaning and recovery work will continue in some parts of the building over the coming days and weeks and a full investigation into the causes of the fire is underway.

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13.00 - 16/05/2018

Thanks to the hard work of our staff, we are making excellent progress on restoring services to the Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre (BHOC) and are ahead of our original schedule to occupy the building. Permanent power was restored to the building overnight and this morning we were delighted to hold outpatient clinics in level 5 of the hospital.

Since the fire we have provided chemotherapy and outpatient appointments in other sites within our hospitals, and since the weekend we have provided urgent radiotherapy to some patients.

This has been a very difficult time for our patients and staff; we thank them for their understanding in these exceptional circumstances.

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14/05/2018

We are making very good progress to get the Bristol Haematology and Oncology Unit back up and running and expect to restore clinical services within the building sooner than we anticipated. We began providing urgent radiotherapy for patients within the BHOC on the weekend, are continuing to provide some chemotherapy and haematology for patients in other areas of our hospitals, and have also moved outpatient appointments to other areas.

The work to restore the BHOC is complex and involves a number of steps including securing a reliable power source, cleaning the building, ensuring infection control procedures are in place, checking and recalibrating complex machinery and then opening services to patients. Factoring this in, by the middle of this week we are aiming to restore a permanent power supply to the BHOC and remove the generators; restore all radiotherapy services, bring the Gamma Knife back into service and restore brachytherapy services. Towards the end of this week we believe we will be able to reopen the Oncology Day Unit and start providing outpatient appointments within the hospital.

This has been a very difficult time for our patients and we thank them for their understanding in these exceptional circumstances, as we thank other NHS organisations for continuing to support us

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17h15 - 11/05/2018

We have made good progress to assess the Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre (BHOC) and plan how we will reopen it to all clinical services.

We are working towards giving all clinical teams access to the building towards the end of next week so that checks and infection control procedures can take place. We hope to have full power restored to the hospital the following week and will restart clinical services within the hospital thereafter.

We will provide urgent radiotherapy to some patients this weekend and are providing chemotherapy to patients in other sites within our hospitals. We are in contact with BHOC patients and ask any patient who has a query to contact us on the usual number.

Our neighbouring NHS and social care services have come to our aid during this difficult period and we are enormously grateful to them and our staff for pulling out the stops and doing all they can.

Once again, we ask the public to continue to help us by using services appropriately.

13h40 - 11/05/2018

The Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre (BHOC) remains closed following the fire in the early hours of Thursday morning and patients who were evacuated from the building are being cared for in our other hospitals.

Power has been restored to the majority of the building via generators and cleaning has begun. Our priority is to assess the building and get urgent radiotherapy services up and running as soon as possible.

We are providing chemotherapy to patients in other sites within our hospitals and are in contact with BHOC patients. Any patient who has a query is asked to contact us on the usual number.

The fire has put all our services under extreme pressure and our staff are going to exceptional lengths to care for our patients. Our colleagues in other hospitals and community services have come to our aid and we are enormously grateful to them.

We also thank the public who have helped us by using services wisely and ask that they continue to support us.

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10/05/18

Our huge thanks and appreciation go to our patients, their families, our staff and our partners. It has been a very difficult day for us and we are enormously grateful for their help and support.

An electrical fire in the plant room of the BHOC broke out in the early hours of this morning. The fire was contained in the plant room, the detection equipment worked as it should, everyone was safely evacuated but there has been extensive smoke damage to the hospital.

We have accommodated all of the patients who were evacuated in other hospitals within the Trust but this has put our services under extreme pressure. Our colleagues in other hospitals and community services have come to our aid and we are enormously grateful to them.

We now have restored power to some areas of the BHOC and are starting to clean it. We expect to have further information on when the hospital may reopen in the next 24 hours.

We are prioritising care for patients who need urgent treatment. Any patient who has questions should contact us on the normal numbers.

Additional measures have been put in place by the BNSSG CCG across the local health system. Find out more here.

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An electrical fire broke out in the plant room of the Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre (BHOC) in the early hours of this morning (10/05/18). In total 53 patients were evacuated and all patients and staff are safe and patients are being cared for in other areas of the Trust.

There is extensive smoke damage through the BHOC and we are now working hard to plan how we care for patients and get the hospital up and running again.

The fire has had a knock on effect on many of our hospitals and our services are under considerable pressure. As a result:

Patients are being diverted away from the adults' Emergency Department. Please note the children's Emergency Department and the Emergency Department in the Bristol Eye Hospital are open as usual.

We have cancelled planned procedures.

We have cancelled radiotherapy planned for today.

We are contacting all patients who are booked for urgent care to make arrangements with them.

Outpatient appointments in the children's hospital and for adult medicine and surgery are continuing as normal.

We would like to apologise to our patients and their families who have been disrupted by these exceptional circumstances.

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