Fire sees Royal Marsden evacuated

At the incident’s height 25 fire engines and around 125 firefighters fought to stop the blaze spreading from the roof to surrounding areas. By around 10 a.m. the following day the fire had been largely damped down, but around six fire engines remained on site. As the fire raged – the London Fire Brigade was first called to the hospital’s Fulham Road site at 1.20p.m. – a staged evacuation lasting about two hours was undertaken; the hospital said each ward had been evacuated “smoothly and swiftly” in its turn. Two patients in theatre (who were safely taken off their anaesthetic and ventilators) and three in recovery at the time were safely transferred to the nearby Royal Brompton, accompanied by specialist staff. A statement issued on the afternoon of January 2 said all patients were “continuing to receive their treatment from Royal Marsden specialist teams in the alternative hospitals”. On the following day there were unconfirmed reports that the fire had broken out on the fourth floor of the building, but the London Fire Brigade said that until fire investigators had spent time at the scene and produced a report neither the source nor the cause of the fire would be certain.

Hospital staff and management reportedly worked through the night for an area unaffected by the fire to be open for staff, ensuring they could contact patients awaiting appointments.  

A second statement issued on the morning of January 3 after key management staff had walked through the damaged area with fire officers said initial indications suggested the damage was “not as bad as first suspected”.

Royal Marsden NHS Foundation trust ceo Cally Palmer said: “We are working as quickly as we can to get the Chelsea hospital up and running and our main priority is to ensure continuity of care for our patients. The London Fire Brigade has released part of the building back to us and we are using this as an administrative centre to keep patients informed." She added that all patients would continue to receive their treatment from the Royal Marsden specialist teams either at the Royal Brompton or at the Royal Marsden’s second hospital in Sutton.  

PR and communications manager Felicity Bull said: “Fortunately we have excellent emergency procedures in place to deal with such a major incident, meaning that the task of transferring patients to other sites for ongoing care has been a relatively smooth one.”

The first hospital in the world to be dedicated to the study and treatment of cancer, the Royal Marsden was founded as the Free Cancer Hospital in 1851 by Dr William Marsden at Cannon Row in Westminster. Deeply affected by his wife Elizabeth Ann’s death from cancer, he resolved to classify tumours, research the causes and find new treatments. Having rapidly outgrown its original premises as it became clear some patients required inpatient care, the hospital re-located several times during the 1850s until its benefactors decided to find a permanent soltuion. Funds were raised to build a new building on Chelsea’s Fulham Road and the hospital moved to the current-day site in 1862.

Subsequently granted its Royal Charter of Incorporation in 1910 it first became known as The Cancer Hospital (Free), a name that changed to the Royal Marsden Hospital in recognition of its founder’s vision in 1954. On the NHSs’ foundation in 1948 the Royal Marsden became a post-graduate teaching hospital and, in response to the need to expand to treat more patients, a second hospital in Sutton in Surrey was opened in 1962.

In April 2005 the Royal Marsden became one of the country’s first NHS Foundation Trusts, while last year it was awarded the highest score of “excellent” by the Healthcare Commission for both quality of services and use of resources for the second year running – the only NHS trust to achieve this.