Operations cancelled at Guy’s hospital in asbestos scare

More than a third of the operating theatres at Guy's hospital in Southwark have been shut as material is removed from a nearby room.

Campaigners said they fear an asbestos "time bomb" is hitting the capital because hospital bosses have failed to carry out proper repairs.

Four of Guy's 11 operating theatres, which deal with both emergency admissions and scheduled operations, were shut at the weekend and remain closed today.

A spokesman for NHS campaigner London Health Emergency said: "This is going to have a massive impact on the hospital's ability to provide services.

"Why wasn't the asbestos identified and dealt with before they ended up with this crisis? This reflects what we have always known — there is a massive backlog of maintenance and important issues that have been ignored.

"We can't afford to lose this kind of hospital capacity, and the fact we are losing it because of managerial incompetence and failure to do routine maintenance is awful."

It comes after teachers launched a campaign to remove all asbestos from schools and colleges by 2012.

Terminally ill London teacher Carole Hagedorn, who supports the campaign, contracted mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos in schools.

The 58-year-old, who taught French and German in secondary schools in Redbridge and Newham, said: "This cancer is incurable and virtually always inoperable. I am unhappy that the lack of proper asbestos control will end my life prematurely."

A spokesman for Guy's hospital said the four operating theatres were shut because a pipe burst in a nearby plant room which contained asbestos.
Work to repair the pipe, which provides heating for the operating theatres, cannot start until the asbestos is cleared from the plant room.

The hospital has alerted the Health and Safety Executive. A spokesman said: "HSE will not be investigating as the removal of asbestos is being carried out in a safe and controlled manner."

A spokeswoman for Guy's said: "Four general operating theatres at Guy's hospital were temporarily closed on Saturday 18 April because of a burst pipe, which means that the theatres cannot be heated while repairs take place. We hope to reopen them as soon as possible and are working to minimise any effect on patient care.

"All urgent cases are being accommodated while some elective surgery has had to be rescheduled.

"At Guy's hospital, as is typical in buildings of its age, asbestos is present in some service areas. In this case, asbestos is being removed from the plant room that supports the theatres in question under controlled circumstances. The presence of this asbestos is recorded on the Trust's asbestos register."

The HSE advises that it is safer to carefully manage undisturbed and undamaged asbestos than remove it.