![‘Patient safety is more important than trying to preserve [the Serco] contract,’ says Western Australia’s health minister Kim Hames.](https://www.medaxs.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/50036.jpg)
Serco will no longer provide sterilisation services at Perth’s new hospital after surgical equipment was found to be contaminated – in at least one case with bone fragments still attached.
The company, which still has around 20 contracts for other work at the $2bn Fiona Stanley hospital, had already been given two breach notices for its sterilisation services before being stripped of the role on Monday.
The Western Australian health minister, Kim Hames, said senior supervision was a critical concern.
“Patient safety is more important than trying to preserve that contract,” Hames told reporters, adding there was no threat to patient safety because the contaminated equipment was intercepted before being used.
Hames said Serco would still provide surgical equipment maintenance and management, “but all of the clinical component … will now be taken over by the state government”.
He said staff from other public hospitals would be temporarily transferred to Fiona Stanley to supervise sterilisation, and the Serco staff who would no longer work there would be offered jobs with the state government.
Hames has asked the acting director general of health, Professor Bryant Stokes, to review services at the hospital to see if there is a systemic problem.
“I want to restore public confidence in Fiona Stanley,” the minister said.
He added that, in hindsight, it was probably a mistake to have engaged Serco for sterilisation duties.