In The Spotlight: David Meates Hits Out At Ministry of Health (now Te Whatu Ora) After Seeing Christchurch Hospital Blackout Report
Former CDHB boss David Meates slams failings found in the Powell Fenwick report and poor Ministry hand-over, and laments the risks posed by a shutdown.
“Over the past decade, Christchurch hospital has been able to function in the context of unprecedented events such as earthquakes based on the knowledge and expertise of a highly competent in-house maintenance team. The fact that these functions are being outsourced is problematic.”
Powell Fenwick: “The operating order written by Connetics concentrated on electrical safety not operational matters.”
“This is a stunning statement in the context of NZ’s largest tertiary provider that relies on uninterrupted power to prevent harm to patients and ensure that essential health [services] are maintained,” wrote Meates.
“This is a brand new hospital delivered by the MOH [Ministry of Health, sic]. There is no excuse for fragmentation or incomplete documents. This reflects a poor handover”.
David Meates, former CDHB boss
The former Canterbury District Health Board boss David Meates has said that “there should never be a circumstance where a large tertiary hospital in NZ experiences a total failure of power”.
His comments come after The Wigram sent him a copy of April’s Powell Fenwick report into the Waitangi Day weekend power blackout.
The report revealed that after the Orion and backup cables had failed, the backup generators could not connect to the latter, because Connetics had removed a umbilical cord at the St Asaph Street substation.
“Over previous years it has been standard practice at Chch Hospital to turn power off (at least once per year in a controlled environment) to ensure that back up generators work as intended. It would be interesting to see if testing has occurred at the new Chch Hospital and indeed every major hospital in NZ.!”
David Meates, former CDHB CEO
Source: pharmacy.co.nz
It not only showed this design flaw, but also that staff were not adequately trained to operate the generator system or respond to crises. It was put down to luck that a phone call was made to a knowledgeable co-worker who knew how to reconnect the generators.
Meates said that “Emergency power system emergency generators are designed to enable a hospital to continue to function in the event of a power failure with back up systems in within seconds.”
Source: Newshub
“The design of these back up systems is to ensure that essential power is maintained as failure to do so creates a significant risk of harm resulting to patients. Areas such as operating theatres are examples of what is deeded as requiring essential power.”
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