As a result of a fire declared yesterday evening in the basement of the building adjacent to St Bernard’s Hospital, the Government has said the GHA activated evacuation protocol due to the presence of smoke having been detected within the hospital.  

A statement from the Government follows below:

Patients of Rainbow Ward and residents of Calpe Ward were immediately transferred to adjacent, unaffected wards, and the GHA initiated the emergency smoke extraction systems.

All evacuated patients and residents were able to safely return to their respective wards by 10pm.

Thankfully, due to the rapid response of staff, patient safety was upheld at all times and no damage was sustained.

The Minister for Health, Paul Balban, said: “I was kept informed at every stage of this unfortunate event.  The safety of our patients, staff and general public is our priority in these situations and I would like to thank both our clinical and non-clinical support staff for the diligent and professional manner in which this incident was handled, under the leadership of Kevin Eagle, the acting Head of Estates and Clinical Engineering; Susan Vallejo, ERS Manger and Sandie Gracia, Director of Nursing Services.”