Serco should never have been given responsibility for sterilising medical equipment at Fiona Stanley Hospital (FSH), former Health Department director-general Bryant Stokes has told a parliamentary inquiry.

Serco has a multi-billion-dollar contract to provide non-clinical services at the hospital, but was stripped of sterilisation earlier this year as a result of patient safety concerns.

Professor Stokes told a parliamentary inquiry Serco did not have enough experience operating sterilisation services at other hospitals.

He said in hindsight, sterilisation should have been considered a clinical responsibility and therefore kept in house.

Outside the hearing, new director-general of Health David Russell-Weisz said he did not think it was that simple.

“At the time, when the contract was assessed, it was thought that they could do the sterilisation service,” he said.

“It’s quite easy in hindsight to look back and make that call, but the call at the time was probably correct.

“What was clear was that it was a complex service, we asked Serco to correct that service, we took definitive action by putting our own staff into that service at that time and then ultimately we made the decision to take it back because we felt it was best served by the Health Department.”

Dr Russell-Weisz reiterated Professor Stokes’ assurances that patient safety was never put at risk.

“There were claims I think in April this year that patients may have had dirty instruments operated on them. That was not substantiated at that time and I can reassure the public that Fiona Stanley Hospital is an excellent hospital.”

Over-budget and under pressure from patient numbers

The Education and Health Standing Committee is examining the commissioning of FSH as well as the financial implications of the Serco contract.

Last week, the committee was told the Health Department would not know until early next year whether the Serco contract had delivered savings to taxpayers.

South Metropolitan Health Service chief executive Robyn Lawrence told the hearing the number of people presenting at FSH was higher than expected and the hospital was running over budget.

Dr Russell-Weisz said the emergency departments at Royal Perth Hospital and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital were also having to deal with more patients than usual.

“We’ve seen an increase in people coming to the tertiary EDs and probably less at the outer metropolitan sites except Joondalup,” he said.

“We’re not sure why that is at the moment, but obviously our challenge is to make sure that patients get treated in the right place at the right time. And encouraging patients if they are living in Armadale or Rockingham or the outer metropolitan area that they are seen there.”