TROY BELL MP
Member for Mount Gambier
Your Independent voice
in State Parliament
Hospital's Clean Bill of Health
Friday May 03, 2024Published by The Border Watch by Charlotte Varcoe
A hygienist has tested an area within the Mount Gambier and District Hospital almost two months after a burst pipe caused significant flooding.
On March 10 there was significant flooding due to a burst pipe at the local hospital prompting swift emergency services, staff and contractor responses.
The majority of the rectification works are now complete with around 90 per cent of the works being done and the full return of services alongside minimal postponements.
Member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell questioned Minister for Health and Wellbeing Chris Picton on whether operational services had returned to "full display" and whether there was any backlog due to the incident.
Mr Picton said the incident was "rapidly addressed" by the team at the Mount Gambier and Districts Hospital to ensure the facilities could "come back online" as soon as possible.
"There was some very quick work that enabled critical services to be able to continue," Mr Picton said.
"Since the incident, the Limestone Coast Local Health Network have progressively worked through addressing the impacted areas, which did result in some closures of walkways for resurfacing and carpeting." He said the response was a "very positive" response not only by the emergency services but by the Limestone Coast Local Health Network which had resulted in "very minimal" impacts in terms of patient outcome.
"This Limestone Coast Local Health Network will be looking into the causes of that to try to make sure there is not a repeat of that sort of incident," Mr Picton said.
Limestone Coast Local Health Network chairperson Grant King stated there was minimal disturbance to procedures and patient safety while also acknowledging and thanked the communal work between emergency services, staff and contractors which enabled the hospital to be back up and running within days.
"We think the weather might have contributed to the incident and what happened was there was a burst pipe in the sprinkler pipes in the corridors which was adjacent to the surgical ward and in some other rooms," Mr King said.
"This included office spaces and nurses stations so it did make quite a mess." He said the surgical ward was shut down pretty quickly and was reopened over three or four days which enabled staff to get patients back into the ward quickly.
"Obviously the rest of the repair work took some time and in many respects it was pretty remarkable how it was managed by staff and contractors concerned," Mr King said.
"Our own staff were also brilliant - the minister acknowledged through our chief executive officer that it was a great job by all concerned." On March 26 Mr King said a barbecue lunch was hosted by the network for staff and contractors to show their appreciation.
"There is not doubt that hospitals are a really important part of the social fabric of the community and when things like this do happen people really do jump on board and get involved and do what they can to make sure we can return to service as quickly as possible," he said.
"All of it was managed really well and we really appreciate the work and cooperation that was put forward at the time.
"It was a matter of juggling things until we got the area dried up and able to be used again and then of course the whole issue of replacing the ceiling, repainting and drying carpets."