Cancer patient claims he was exposed to asbestos at former Caterham Hospital

A FATHER of four who has an asbestos-related cancer believes he picked it up while working in a former Caterham hospital.

Mervyn Waiton was a porter at the former hospital.

And lawyers acting for Mervyn Waiton have appealed for others who worked at St Lawrence’s Hospital at around the same time to get in touch.

It was only when he went for a recent check-up with his GP that mesothelioma was discovered.

Mr Waiton, who lives in Stafford Road, believes he was exposed to the deadly dust during the hours he spent in the porters’ rest room waiting for calls from hospital staff needing help.

The rest room was also the boiler room.

The boiler and the pipes around it were all lagged in asbestos, which was widely used for insulation at the time.

The porters would often sit in the rest room for many hours a day, sometimes eating their meals there, he recalled.

He said: “Because of its age the hospital plumbers were always tinkering with the boiler and the pipes.

You must manage asbestos, if present, if any non-domestic building built or refurbished before 2000

“There were three and a half miles of corridors in the hospital, with pipes running the whole length, most of which were lagged with asbestos.

“They were all in various states of disrepair. We must have been surrounded by bits of dust.”

St Lawrence’s, a hospital for the mentally ill, was originally known as the Imbeciles Asylum in 1868.

It consisted of six blocks, housing more than 800 women and five blocks for 700 men, mostly “the sick poor”. It became St Lawrence’s Hospital in 1941, eventually closing in 1994.

Mr Waiton recalled: “It was like a self-contained village.

“There were plumbers, builders, electricians all employed there full-time. There was even a butcher.

“I remember my colleagues such as Ted Birch, Dave Clare and a plumber called Ben Well.”

The site is now taken up by the 161-home Oakgrove private development, although a small unit for people with learning disabilities lies at its heart.

Anyone who worked at the hospital around that time is asked to contact andrew.morgan@fieldfisher.com

Source: Surrey Mirror