A GYNAECOLOGY ward at Lewisham Hospital had to be evacuated because of a chemical incident yesterday (August 23).

Patients and staff were transferred to another part of the fifth floor of A-block at University Hospital Lewisham at around 9.40am yesterday morning after refrigerant gas began leaking from a fridge.

Specialist firefighter crews were called in and removed the fridge from a utility room, just off the ward.

Wearing breathing apparatus they double bagged the fridge so no more gas could escape before using the fire lift to get it out of the building.

Once safely outside the bags were unsealed so the gas could slowly seep away.

The atmosphere in the ward and the utility room were tested and the rooms were ventilated to ensure the gas dispersed.

At around 11.40am the gas was at a safe enough level to reopen the ward and the patients and staff were allowed back in.

A spokesperson for Lewisham Healthcare NHS Trust said: “We are pleased with the way our staff responded to the incident, which did not result to any harm to patients or staff.

“No clinical care to our patients was affected by this incident, but we have apologised to patients for any inconvenience that this incident caused.

“All our equipment is checked on a regular basis, and following this incident we will be checking other fridges in the hospital.”

It was attended by fire crews from Lewisham and Lee Green along with fire rescue units from Lewisham and Millwall and a chemical, biological, radiation and nuclear team from Lambeth.

The incident commander was station manager David Bosley from Lewisham fire station.