America's North Shore Journal

A huge problem for socialized England.

Independent

Fire swept through one of Britain’s leading cancer hospitals yesterday, severely damaging operating theatres and wards, and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of staff and patients.

More than 125 firefighters were involved in fighting the blaze at the Royal Marsden Hospital in south-west London which broke out in a fourth-floor room and rapidly spread along the roof of the building.

Three people – one patient and two firefighters – received treatment for smoke inhalation while other patients received checks on the pavement outside the building before being moved to other hospitals.

Hospital authorities said that about 800 staff and 90 patients had to be ferried out of the building. A “large proportion” of the five operating theatres and two wards had been badly affected, making it impossible to carry out any operations.

The Royal Marsden was the first hospital in the world dedicated to the study and treatment of cancer. In November 2006, along with its academic partner The Institute of Cancer Research, it was designated the UK’s only Biomedical Research Centre for Cancer by The National Institute for Health Research, forming the largest comprehensive cancer centre in Europe, seeing more than 40,000 patients from the UK and abroad each year.

Professor Ray Powles, former head of haematooncology at the Royal Marsden, said that much of the valuable research material could be saved because there was a second site for the hospital. He added, however, that the loss of the hospital would be a “huge, huge step” back for cancer treatment.