Page 1425 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 9 May 2017
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As part of the response, ACT Health of course also needed to consider the implications for patients and staff the following day. At 9 pm on 5 April 2017 ACT Health hospital commander, Chris Bone, made the decision to postpone all elective surgeries scheduled for Thursday, 6 April 2017, with the exception of one category 1 urology list and one category 1 neurosurgery list. All outpatient appointments were also postponed.
This decision was made as reinstatement of full service power supplies was not guaranteed and patients were all contacted as soon as possible on the morning of Thursday, 6 April 2017. As of 7 April 2017 all patients have had their appointments rescheduled and elective procedures rebooked. As I have mentioned, the Canberra Hospital emergency department remained operational for major trauma, obstetric emergencies and significant paediatric cases, with all other local cases directed to Calvary.
In the cardiac catheterisation laboratory, business continuity processes were put in place to manage emergency procedures for STEMI, or heart attack, patients at the National Capital Private Hospital. Media messaging strongly encouraged the public in need of medical care to present to Calvary hospital emergency department or the walk-in centres in Tuggeranong and Belconnen.
By the end of the day on Thursday, 6 April 2017 the Canberra Hospital emergency department had resumed normal operations and all inpatients who had been transferred to other areas within the hospital were returned to their original wards. Elective surgery and outpatient clinics were reinstated on Friday, 7 April 2017 and all postponed elective surgeries and outpatient clinic appointments had been rebooked by 12 April 2017.
Business continuity processes for the delivery of cardiac catheterisation at National Capital Private Hospital continued until 19 April 2017. Immediately following the incident, the cardiac catheter lab at Canberra Hospital had a reduced service on 7 April 2017. However, a subsequent incident with the cardiac catheter lab backup power arrangements on 9 April 2017 impacted services up until 14 April 2017. Thereafter 50 per cent of the cardiac catheter lab capacity was in place until 19 April, and full service normal operations resumed from 20 April 2017.
Madam Speaker, I will now outline the work undertaken by infrastructure and facilities staff. Immediately preceding the initial fault within the switch room, health infrastructure services facilities management staff, working in parallel with the emergency operations centre patient response, activated contingency plans to reinstate electrical services to the impacted buildings.
At the time the fire was extinguished, which was approximately 7:30 pm, ACT Fire & Rescue advised that health infrastructure services staff could access the switchboard room safely to assess the damage. The preliminary damage assessment by facilities management staff indicated that the fire damage was limited to a very small segment—less than a third—of a single switchboard primarily servicing lift operations.
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