When the $2 billion Fiona Stanley Hospital [FSH] sat without patients for months after the building was completed mid-2014, the West Australian Government said it was largely to avoid “teething problems”.
But since the facility’s staged opening in October last year, it has been plagued by both clinical and structural issues.
The latest of those came to the fore this week, when a major water leak caused substantial operational headaches for the second time in a matter of months.
That comes on top of issues with the sterilisation of vital medical equipment, the death of a patient who was given the wrong drug to treat his bowel disease and complaints of overworked doctors.
As a consequence of those problems, a parliamentary inquiry was instigated and the hospital’s private operator Serco was stripped of its sterilisation contract in order to, according to Health Minister Kim Hames, “restore the public’s confidence” in the facility.
But concerns in the medical community clearly remain, with Australian Medical Association WA president Michael Gannon saying it felt like there had been “one problem after another” with the facility.
Having repeatedly dealt with systemic and operational concerns at FSH, Dr Hames is now searching for answers about the building itself on the back of a second significant structural failure in a matter of months.
“The first one was a part that was supposed to be a part that lasts for 100 years and it burst,” Dr Hames said after the latest flooding incident.
“That happening a second time certainly raises concern and we will need to look at all those areas to see if there are other areas that are not up to scratch.”
Dr Hames said the situation at FSH had improved since the string of problems earlier this year and hoped the completion of a review into clinical services launched in April – and set to be publicly released soon – would provide further answers.
The ongoing problems are set to face further scrutiny by the parliamentary inquiry, which is continuing.