Power outage at RAH as generator fails in testing
Surgery was stopped for four tense minutes today after parts of the RAH were blacked out when a routine test saw a piece of critical equipment fail.
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A patient undergoing surgery was left in limbo for four minutes during a blackout at the $2.4 billion Royal Adelaide Hospital when a routine test of back-up power generators failed.
Surgeons paused the procedure as lights and monitors went off during the tense four-minute gap, but then finished the operation without problems once power was restored.
Parts of two levels of the RAH were left without power during the outage.
Officials say there were “no adverse patient outcomes” from the outage on Wednesday morning but Australian Medical Association state president Dr Chris Moy said it would have been “scary for staff when the monitors turn off.”
Details of the type of surgery the person was undergoing, or the patient’s age, are not yet known.
Central Adelaide Local Health Network director of operational services Elke Kropf confirmed the blackout was caused by a generator failure during scheduled testing.
“During routine monthly generator testing, one of the generators didn’t start as expected leading to a four minute interruption to power affecting two levels of the eastern side of the hospital,” she said.
“Staff were aware of the generator testing in advance and there were no adverse patient outcomes.
“Monthly generator testing ensures we can identify any issues with our generators in advance should there be a power outage.”
The test was done during the day to check if the system’s backup would cope during an interruption while functioning at full load, but staff had been alerted to the test and officials say no patients were at risk.
Dr Moy said the tests are essential to ensure power is continuous.
“The power generator did not turn on and there was a short interruption of power for several minutes,” he said.
“Obviously it is really scary for staff when monitors turn off but they were not totally in the dark that it was about to go dark.
‘They were just making sure the power would come back on, and had to do it under full load to make sure under normal conditions the generators would come back on.
“The main thing is they don’t do it when there is a risk to patients — my understanding is there was no harm to patients and staff were pre-warned.”
Dr Moy noted high tech hospitals are “incredibly dependent” on secure power supplies and this requires continuous tests of back up systems.
“These things are scary but I think this was in the context of a test to make sure that it doesn’t happen again and you don’t have a major or prolonged blackout,” he said.
A major blackout at the hospital in February last year caused a 17-minute outage, disrupting surgical procedures and leaving people stuck in lifts.
It triggered four investigations which found human and software glitches contributed to fuel falling below required levels during the test.
