Mould crisis forces most of Peel Health Campus to shut, diverted ambulances pile demand on other hospitals

More than 100 patients have been diverted and transferred from Peel Health Campus since mould was discovered in the air conditioning ducts, forcing the sudden closure of most of the facility. Ambulances continue to bypass the campus and its emergency department is assessing walk-ins only, after parts of the hospital were evacuated on Friday night. Patients were moved to other facilities operated by Ramsay Health Care while ambulances were diverted to Rockingham General Hospital and Fiona Stanley Hospital. It’s understood Rockingham hospital is struggling to cope with the extra demand and had on Monday put in place a “soft diversion” of ambulances for a few hours. It meant they only accepted incoming patients that were triaged as priority one. Kath Smith, executive director of South Metropolitan Health Service’s Rockingham Peel Group, said that was part of normal practice to manage a period of high demand on the emergency department. A St John WA spokeswoman said the organisation had diverted dozens of patients from Peel Health Campus since early Friday evening and was evenly distributing them to alternative metropolitan hospitals. “St John has also transferred more than 30 patients from the hospital over the weekend,” she said. Meanwhile, Ramsay’s chief nurse Bernadette Eather, conceded the ASX-listed company did not know what type of mould was in the ducts, and that Peel Health Campus’ emergency department and affected wards could take several days to reopen. Dr Eather, who has been flown in from over east to help manage the crisis, insisted Ramsay was taking a considered and robust approach but was unable to provide any information on how the mould had time to grow. She did say however that the healthcare provider was not expecting it to be black mould, which can be toxic, with its spores causing respiratory and ocular issues. “We don’t know what it is and we’re certainly not stating it’s black mould,” Dr Eather said. “We anticipate, given the sampling, that we should get those results back in the next 48 hours in order to confirm what we’re dealing with.” This would mean results on Wednesday, almost a week since the mould was first reported to the hospital. When pressed on the timeframe for reopening, Dr Eather was vague saying the process could take several days. It means the region’s main hospital would be forced to continue operating without its full clinical capabilities. Three of the hospital’s four operating theatres have been closed as a result of the mould issue. “At this stage, I can’t give a definitive date but we’re working on a range of processes to make sure we can return a full suite of clinical services as soon as it’s safe to do so,” she said. She said an expert environmental hygienist was helping with the appropriate “disinfection, sampling and cleaning process”. “It’s quite a staged approach and we don’t want to move on to the next stage until we’ve completed that first one,” she said. Dr Eather said each step of that process “takes a couple of days” and that some steps “might be a few days each”. Liberal Leader Libby Mettam said the latest saga showed WA’s public health system was lurching from “crisis to crisis under the McGowan Government’s watch” and accused Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson of being “clearly out of her depth”. “This is a hospital which was already under extraordinary pressure and it is alarming to hear that the minister has no oversight as to when patients will be able to be accepted at this hospital,” Ms Mettam said. Nursing staff have made claims of roof leaks throughout the facility for the past couple of years, with one nurse stating at a community health forum on Saturday she wasn’t surprised to hear of a mould outbreak. “We had a big leak in the (operating) theatre last year, and it went right through the HEPA filter,” registered nurse Bev Ramsay said. But Dr Eather told reporters that experts had advised leaks were not the cause of the mould, as mould from leaks were usually in more localised areas and presented externally. “In an air handling service (like at Peel Health Campus), it’s more an environmental issue,” she said. “The expert advice is that it’s not related to that leak in the roof . . . it’s very unlikely that that’s the case.” About 50 patients remain at the Peel facility where it is providing a “limited number of clinical services”. Cleaning and decontamination provider Dunbar Services and commercial cleaner WSC Cleaning Services were on-site on Monday. Ms Mettam added that it remained unclear when long-talked about upgrades to Peel Health Campus would be completed. “The whole situation around Peel Health Campus is an absolute mess,” she said.