Fórsa official Thomas Cowman praised staff at the hospital for their efforts during the evacuation on Wednesday: "It's clear that the staff responded to the incident with calm and professionalism, and that no effort was spared to safely evacuate the patients.

"The staff have been widely praised for keeping patients calm as the hospital was evacuated," he said.

Thomas and branch rep Kate Miskella are liasing with members at Wexford General, and are encouraging them to contact the union about any questions or concerns they have following Wednesday's fire.

He praised the work of the fire service, which has a presence on site at the hospital: "The response of the local fire service played a significant role in containing the fire. Overall, the whole situation seems to have been handled very well, and there is now a very challenging phase ahead to restore services.

"Fórsa has already engaged with hospital management. In the coming days there will be a need to ensure that staff are fully appraised of the next steps toward resuming services in the short term. We'll also need to look at how inpatient services are restored in the longer term, and any potential impact on the plans for a new 96 bed unit in Wexford," he said.

It's reported that up to 100 of the hospital’s roughly 200 beds have been significantly affected by the fire and the action required to contain it. Wexford fire services said that the damage to the hospital building is “medium to small", that the fire was “not large” and had been confined to a small area on the roof of the building.

All outpatient appointments and elective procedures had been cancelled for Thursday and Friday. Hospital management has said it remains hopeful that it can resume outpatient appointments on Monday, subject to technical assessments.

Members working at Wexford General Hospital can contact Thomas Cowman by clicking HERE and Kate Miskella by clicking HERE.

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