An incident this morning in which workmen accidentally cut a chemical pipe in a staff-only building on the Wellington Hospital campus has caused elective surgery and non-urgent lab-tests to be postponed until the building is back in service.

The incident, which occurred at around 11am this morning in the Clinical Services Block (CSB), caused a non-flammable but potentially hazardous chemical named formalin to leak. The CSB, which does not house any patient areas, has been evacuated and emergency services, lead by the Fire Service, quickly responded.

The rest of Wellington Hospital - including all wards, outpatient areas, theatres, etc - has not been evacuated.

14 people, mainly workmen who were present in the CSB when the pipe was cut, have been seen at the Emergency Department as a precaution. All are walking and talking, and initial indications are that the effects of any exposure to the chemical have been minor.

The clean-up is expected to last into the night, and it is not expected that the building will be reoccupied until tomorrow morning at earliest.

The main effect of this staff-only building being closed while the clean-up occurs is that the hospital's main laboratories are in the affected building. As a result the hospital is delaying all non-urgent lab testing, and has postponed any non-urgent surgery for the rest of Friday (affecting around 10 patients).

Arrangements have been made to outsource urgent lab tests in the interim, and the hospital has this afternoon extended its thanks to Hutt Hospital and Aotea Pathology for their assistance.

Normal service will resume as soon as possible, and the DHB apologises for any inconvenience.