Infectious diseases specialist Andrew Redmond in a ‘high containment’ room at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. Pic: Peter Wallis Source: News Limited
IT’S the bubble room reserved for the state’s sickest patients.
The Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital this week allowed The Courier-Mail inside its airlocked “high containment” room, a facility where the air is isolated so it can’t circulate through the building.
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It looks like a normal hospital room, but patients are taken there only if they are suffering from a highly infectious condition such as measles or tuberculosis, or a severe and potentially fatal virus such as Ebola.
Infectious diseases specialist Andrew Redmond said the room – in the hospital’s infectious disease unit – was the “highest intensity” available and fully fitted out to cater with very unwell, contagious patients.
“The double door system has an airlock within the doors to prevent having both doors open at once and specialised airconditioning takes air from the room outside of the building, so it doesn’t recirculate in the rest of the ward,’’ RBWH-based Dr Redmond said.
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“The room is designed so that all surfaces are able to be cleaned easily so that we can kill viruses and we know how long it takes to clear an airborne virus. We also incinerate waste such as linen.”
Queensland Health said there were 157 negative-pressure rooms across the state that could be used in the event of a medical emergency.
Chief health officer Jeannette Young said medical providers in Queensland had been provided with information about Ebola.
Health facilities and ambulances were stocked with personal protective equipment.
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