THE number of surgeries should be halved at Perth’s new hospital until equipment contamination concerns are dealt with, the nursing union says.
AUSTRALIAN Nurses Federation members met at the $2 billion Fiona Stanley facility on Wednesday after alleging patients had been operated on using equipment that had not been properly sterilised by Serco, which has the service contract.
The alleged incidents include bone fragments being found on a drill before it was used to fix a broken hand, and a heart surgery patient kept under anaesthetic because equipment was missing sterile pieces. Opposition health spokesman Roger Cook told AAP that nurses were calling for surgeries at the hospital to be halved until the problems were sorted out. He said the ANF had also arranged for members to meet lawyers on Thursday to discuss duty of care should something go wrong with a surgery patient. Mr Cook said the government should investigate the thousands of operations that had taken place at the public hospital since surgeries began in November. Health Minister Kim Hames has accused the ANF of scaremongering by saying patients who had surgery at the hospital should tested for serious diseases including HIV. He said he had been advised patients had not been put at risk. But Mr Hames also admitted the state government was not satisfied with Serco’s record. AMA WA president Michael Gannon told Fairfax radio it was mind-boggling an instrument tray could be contaminated, considering the sterilisers used massive doses of radiation to kill every known virus and bacterial particle. But it was grossly irresponsible of the union to say patients needed a HIV test. “Anyone who’s had surgery, they can’t lie awake at night worried they’ve got hepatitis B or hepatitis C because they’re not at risk of that,” he said. Dr Gannon said Serco should lose the sterilisation contract if the company could not fix the problem.