Patients forced to cancel surgery after Austin Hospital cleaning machine malfunctions

Hundreds of patients at the Austin Hospital have had their surgeries cancelled after a sterilising machine malfunctioned last week — and more procedures could be axed in coming days.

Austin Hospital has been forced to turn hundreds of patients away from surgery.

One of Melbourne’s biggest hospitals has turned away hundreds of patients set to undergo surgery this week after the machine used to clean operating tools malfunctioned.

The Austin Hospital has cancelled all elective surgery operations scheduled from Thursday last week and says it will likely continue into the coming week.

More than 250 procedures have been cancelled so far.

The hospital released a statement this morning explaining the cancellations and reassuring patients they are undertaking “rigorous inspections” of all equipment still in use.

“On Wednesday last week we became aware that our surgical instrument washers were not cleaning properly,” the statement says.

“As soon as we became aware of issue, we took immediate action and removed the washers from service.

“This issue is with our instrument washers not our sterilising machines which are working effectively.

“As a result of this issue, we have lower stock of surgical instruments and so we’ve made the decision to prioritise all emergency and essential surgery.

“We’ve cancelled all elective surgery from Thursday last week through to Friday this week.

“To date, 268 procedures have been cancelled.

“We’re also planning to cancel elective surgery next week.

The Austin apologised to patients and families affected by the mass cancellation and stressed the “low risk” of any complications to arise as a result.

The Austin Hospital in Heidelberg. Picture: Ian Currie

“We sincerely apologise to patients and their families for any inconvenience caused,” the statement continues.

“We’ve been undertaking rigorous inspections of instruments prior to conducting any surgery.

“The cleaning and sterilisation process is thorough and extensive so there is an extremely low risk that any patient is likely to develop an adverse reaction such as allergy or infection.

“We’ve been working around the clock to resolve this issue.

“Currently five of our seven washers are functioning and we’re progressively bringing them up to full capacity.

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“We’re continuing to work on the other two machines. Once this issue is resolved we’ll be conducting a detailed investigation to ensure this issue doesn’t occur again.”

But many patients have been left in the lurch.

One caller to 3AW’s breakfast program told Neil Mitchell her 76-year-old father’s cancer treatment had to be cancelled.

“Ambulances are on bypass for everything to do with surgery,” she said.

“Even appendix, minor things. They’ve got 12 theatres there and four procedure rooms — you would think that if it wasn’t major they would be able to open up one with a surgeon bringing in own equipment.”

Coalition Leader Michael O’Brien said the impacts were concerning.

“This is third-world country stuff here in Victoria you’ve got hundreds of patients who’ve had their surgeries potentially compromised by unclean surgical implements and these patients are now at a risk of infection as a result,” he said.

“You’ve now got the Austin hospital shut down for a whole lot of surgery which means a whole lot of patients aren’t getting the care they need.

“Daniel Andrews needs to explain why this is allowed to happen he needs to explain why the Austin hospital hasn’t been funded to update the cleaning equipment basic equipment to be used to perform surgeries safely in this state.”

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