Royal Adelaide Hospital: Report into RAH loss of power finds maintenance staff at fault

ROYAL Adelaide Hospital maintenance staff ignored repeated warnings in the days leading up to a potentially life-threatening power outage at the $2.3 billion facility in February, a report has found.

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ROYAL Adelaide Hospital maintenance staff ignored repeated warnings in the days leading up to a potentially life-threatening power outage at the $2.3 billion facility in February, a report has found.

A report by Frazer-Nash ­Consultancy, commissioned by the former Labor Government and released today, has revealed hospital maintenance staff did not act on alarms that sounded for “a number of days”, indicating fuel loads were low.

The report also found Spotless, a private contractor, was not prepared for testing of the hospital’s diesel-fuelled back-up generators.

SA Health has released a separate internal communications report into the event.

The reports come four months after a power outage at the Royal Adelaide Hospital — lasting a total of 16 minutes — at 10.52am on February 7.

At the time, SA Health reported the blackout lasted 10 minutes.

The Royal Adelaide Hospital by night. Picture: Russell Millard.

The outage, which occurred while a generator was being tested under full-load conditions, affected the hospital’s “E Block”, which includes crucial areas such as cardiology, radiotherapy, cancer day treatment and general surgery.

The report found: “The state had not been made aware that the testing of this nature was to occur on this date, despite the requirement for (maintenance staff) .... to provide monthly planned maintenance schedules and to identify any activities that may disrupt hospital functions”.

The report states there was confusion among hospital staff when power was restored and how the information was relayed to medical staff.

After the blackout, Australian Medical Association (SA) president Associate Professor William Tam, who was operating on a 97-year-old patient at the time the outage occurred, told The Advertiser that “absolutely someone could have died” during the power cut.

He went on to say, the outcome could have been “disastrous” if a patient had been undergoing complex surgery, such as cardiac surgery.

The report found the “root causes” of the failure include:

LACK of maintenance response prior to the generator test.

ALARMS indicating faults within the fuel system had been present for a period and not rectified.

LACK of preparedness at the commencement of the generator test.

ALARMS indicating faults within the fuel system were present when the decision to commence the generator test was made.

The investigation has prompted a review of communication procedures at the RAH.

Central Adelaide Local Health Network chief executive officer Jenny Richter said the hospital had “undertaken a communications review and put in place additional processes and educated staff on what the command of control should be in that type of environment”.

“Firstly, it’s important to understand the (private) contract for us is with Celsus and Spotless have the sub-contract with Celsus.

“I wish to say that Spotless and Celsus have both responded incredibly well to these series of events and we’re working very closely to ensure these events don’t happen again.”

Ms Richter said the RAH was a “very large and complex hospital” and while she was “disappointed” the issue occurred, she said “there was no harm done to patients”.

“I’m actually very impressed how all our staff responded in the circumstance,” she said.

Today, The Advertiser is reporting Spotless, which has been heavily criticised for providing poor food quality at the RAH, has lost its bid to renew contracts with two major Adelaide hospitals — the Flinders Medical Centre and Modbury Hospital.