Doctors Resume Day Surgery After Emergency Phone Fix

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday March 3, 2008

Natasha Wallace Health Reporter

DOCTORS plan to partly resume surgery at the troubled new $100 million Bathurst Base Hospital today after extraordinary measures were taken to overcome patient safety concerns due to its failed communications systems.

Elective surgery stopped three weeks ago after doctors refused to operate on all but the most urgent cases because the emergency alarm system was faulty, there was no mobile phone reception and the paging system kept failing.

The new hospital also does not conform to national health guidelines, prompting the NSW Health Minister, Reba Meagher, to sack a planning official and order a statewide audit of all major building projects.

However, the chairman of the Bathurst Medical Staff Council, Chris Halloway said yesterday some of the communication issues at Bathurst had been temporarily resolved and day surgery, which comprised about 65 per cent of all elective surgery, would resume today.

Telstra had installed a so-called temporary "communication on wheels" device to improve mobile phone coverage and doctors were given Telstra phones and SIM cards to overcome problems with other networks, Dr Halloway said.

The caravan-like structure with a tower on top is used by the army and in emergency situations such as in floods where communication systems had broken down. It will stay at the hospital until a permanent tower is built next year.

Ms Meagher announced a range of measures late last week to overcome the problems, including "the activation of a temporary emergency alert system".

Dr Halloway said this was effectively using walkie-talkies throughout emergency theatres until the alarm system - which did not sound across the whole theatre complex - was rewired.

"We have a walkie-talkie in each of the theatres and dotted around the recovery areas and the tearoom so we've got all bases covered. People have been quite inventive working things out," he said.

"We don't want to resume full surgery just in case there are a few hiccups, we don't want to be caught out again."

He said the Medical Staff Council was pleased that "the Minister of Health has moved so quickly to fix things up".

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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