By Mackenzie Heard
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Calvary St Luke’s Hospital in Launceston has suspended surgeries across all three operating theatres, after micro tears were found in the floor of one of the theatres.
The hospital told surgeons and patients on Friday that the hospital would not be operating from Monday, so engineers could investigate and determine the extent of the repairs.
The shutdown will affect 40 planned surgeries this week, with 22 of those reallocated to Calvary’s nearby St Vincent’s Hospital.
Calvary St Luke’s general manager Kate Pryde said the investigation would take weeks.
“So we would anticipate that it is going to be disrupted for a few weeks.”
Other ‘potentially problematic’ areas
The issue was discovered over a week ago, when hospital staff noticed a slight dip in the floor in one of the operating theatres.
Further investigations uncovered micro tears in the linoleum flooring, caused by deterioration of the floor substrate.
Ms Pryde said the theatre was closed immediately after the discovery.
Surgeries continued in the two other theatres while further investigations took place.
“We started to broaden our investigation and we found some other areas that we also felt had some changes in the integrity that could potentially become problematic as well,” she said.
“So, at the end of the week, we made the difficult decision to close the theatres.”
Ms Pryde said there was no indication the theatres’ sterility had been compromised, and that the integrity of the floor is critical to maintaining a sterile environment.
“At this stage, we don’t have any advice regarding the overall harm,” she said.
“It’s why you close theatres as soon as you understand that there may be something that’s interfering with what you need to achieve to maintain a sterile theatre.
“We do regular testing of theatres — it’s part of how you must maintain an operating theatre.”
Paediatric cases prioritised
The hospital says engineers will be on site today to begin “invasive evaluations” to determine the scope of work needed to repair the floor.
The hospital has reallocated scheduled surgeries to St Vincent’s Hospital, with Ms Pryde saying paediatric cases will be given priority because of the increase in paediatric activity over the school holiday period.
The hospital will be looking at a range of options to ensure it can maintain the highest level of surgical activity at St Vincent’s during the shutdown. This includes longer operating days and the reintroduction of surgeries on Saturdays.
Ms Pryde said the shutdown was not a threat to the jobs of staff at the St Luke’s.
“They’re being incredibly flexible and adaptive to ensure that we can continue to offer as much service as we can to the community.”
When asked about the suspended surgeries, Health Minister Bridget Archer said the government was committed to improving access to elective surgeries.
“We’ve had a focus on elective surgeries over the past few years, we will continue to have that focus on delivering timely access to elective surgeries,” she said.
“But it is very important that we get to the bottom of what has happened in this incident, before reopening that theatre.”
The health department has been contacted for comment.
