Page 1424 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 9 May 2017
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As minister, I was kept regularly updated by phone and email of the incident and whole-of-government actions taken throughout the evening. As it turned out, I attended the nearby Woden Valley Community Council that evening from 7.30 to approximately 10 pm. I was also briefed early the following morning and attended a media conference at ESA headquarters at Fairbairn the following noon to discuss the event with the media, alongside the incident controller, and heads of ESA, Fire & Rescue and ACT Ambulance Service.
Canberra Hospital deployed a paediatric nurse to Calvary emergency department to assist with the management of children at Calvary. In addition, a paediatrician attended Calvary emergency department and reviewed all children who were potentially in need of transfer to Canberra Hospital. They deemed all children who presented safe to remain at Calvary with the support of the paediatric nurse. All of these children were discharged from Calvary the following day on Thursday, 6 April 2017.
The ACT Health team worked closely with the Calvary hospital and National Capital Private Hospital’s on-call team members who attended the Canberra Hospital assisting throughout the evening in liaising between the two facilities to ease patient transfer and admission.
Under the direction of the hospital emergency operations centre, staff implemented well-established emergency management protocols. This ensured that the safety of patients and staff was maintained during the period of temporary power loss, specifically, a three phase plan, initiated by the operations centre, was used to manage the possible requirement of evacuation from affected buildings. This included: phase 1, identification and discharge of patients medically appropriate for discharge from affected areas; phase 2, transfer of patients from buildings 1 and 3 to unaffected areas of the Canberra Hospital campus; and phase 3, forward planning for the low likelihood of a wider evacuation of all remaining patients. Phase 2 was only partially implemented with the transfer of some patients to National Capital Private Hospital, and phase 3 was not required.
During the temporary power loss, approximately 60 patients were deemed to be clinically appropriate for discharge and were subsequently discharged. Six patients were transferred to National Capital Private Hospital, four patients were transferred to the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children, and 50 residents from building 5 were relocated to hotels as a precautionary measure, with support from Transport Canberra and the Community Services Directorate.
The operation was well managed with the emphasis being on the safety of all patients, visitors and staff. Patients being discharged and visitors who were onsite in inpatient areas when the incident started were accompanied by ACT Health staff to safe egress points. Food services, pharmacy and pathology services remained uninterrupted throughout the incident. Affected buildings were without normal lighting at intermittent periods throughout the night. When this occurred, emergency lighting came on immediately and, in addition, backup lighting sources, including lighting supplied by generator power and torches, were supplied to all affected areas.
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