Accident and Emergency Department reopens at Lincoln County Hospital after arson incident

The incident at the department saw more than 50 patients have to be evacuated and John Gillion Watson, 56, of Vicarage Court, Sleaford, has since been arrested and charged with arson recklessly endangering life following a fire at Lincoln County Hospital. He has been remanded into custody to await a hearing at Lincoln Crown Court.

The A&E department had started to accept a small number of emergency ambulances on Wednesday, but is now fully open to all patients.

Andrew Morgan, United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust Chief Executive, said: “A massive thank you to all of our colleagues who have worked around the clock to clean and restore all areas of the Emergency and Diagnostic Departments so that we have been able to reopen as soon as possible after the fire. The Trust are in the process of receiving two mobile CT scanners and a mobile MRI scanner in order to be able to return services back to normal at Lincoln County Hospital.

“We would also like to thank Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service, Lincolnshire Police and all of our partner organisations for their continued support and assistance. We also appreciate the understanding and support shown by our patients and the people of Lincolnshire.”

Patients and staff were safely evacuated from the Emergency Department at approximately 3am on Tuesday. Nobody was injured.

The fire resulted in extensive damage to the hospital’s interventional radiology sterile procedures room, with further damage to the X-ray, CT and MRI imaging suites. The Trust says it continues to offer its full support to the ongoing police and fire investigation.

Patients who were due to attend Lincoln County Hospital for a scanning appointment on Thursday (X-ray, CT or MRI) were asked not to attend. Those affected will be contacted directly and may be offered appointments at other hospitals so that the scans can be done as soon as possible. Radiotherapy remains unaffected.

Outpatient appointments are going ahead with a small number of exceptions. Patients will be contacted directly and their appointments rearranged where this is the case. Any patients who were unable to attend their appointments in the last few days will also be contacted to have these rearranged.

You are reminded to be aware that all Trust sites are still under extreme pressure due to COVID-19.