Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital: Whistleblower warns ‘failing infrastructure’ is ‘much worse’ than reported

A health service whistleblower says shocking conditions at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, including reports of human waste leaking through the intensive care unit and its deteriorating infrastructure, are “much worse” than has been reported. More than 1000 work orders have inundated maintenance crews at the health facility, many referring to constant leaks and reports of flooding. A senior staffer at the North Metropolitan Health Service, which operates the hospital, said that was just the tip of the iceberg. They said they had been incensed by the reaction to The West Australian’s investigation, which had exposed internal staff reports of a “radioactive water” leak and human excrement flowing through the intensive care unit. “It is hard to sit and watch the Government defend these issues and act as if they are nothing,” the whistleblower said. “Infrastructure like duress and paging in SCGH is so old it cannot be maintained as parts no longer exist. Some of the contractors working for NMHS have had to buy parts on eBay to keep some systems going.” The staff member, who has asked to remain anonymous due to fears of reprisal, said other hospitals, including King Edward Memorial Hospital, Osborne Park and Graylands were equally in a state of disarray. They said a number of major infrastructure issues had remained on the risk register at each of those facilities for some time. “Higher level management in NMHS cannot sign-off on large expenditure on works that are critical things. They request funding in the budget submissions annually,” the staff member said. “Only our top five requests are funded. Imagine that, only five issues across all of NMHS hospitals are funded. “Things like critical infrastructure works, fire-related building risks, air-conditioning systems, water quality. “So things keep failing because large funding amounts are not provided to replace the 40-year-old infrastructure.” Under intense pressure in Parliament on Wednesday on ageing facilities, Health Minister Meredith Hammat was quick to shift the responsibility on to her fellow Cabinet minister, Health Infrastructure Minister John Carey. “I think it is important to note that we do have a minister for health infrastructure, and might surprise you to know that maintenance of infrastructure is one of his responsibilities,” she said. But Ms Hammat went on to defend the Government’s spending on health infrastructure. “You would have seen the amount of funding that we’re putting into hospital services at the last budget, more than $800 million uplift just to meet increased demand,” she said. “$50 million for the new ED at Charlies, and $25 million for a 10-bed ICU pod.” Mr Carey also defended the Cook Government’s spending on maintaining hospitals in recent days when the crumbling state of Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital was laid bare. “SCGH regularly receives ongoing maintenance funding on an as-needed basis,” Mr Carey said. But investment into hospital infrastructure was not able to keep pace with the backlog of building decay, according to the whistleblower. “It is much worse than people see or the media has reported,” they said. “NMHS use so many contractors that they spend way more than we need to and companies know that there is no choice. “If they’re on the trade panel of approved contractors they all quote high and then NMHS usually pay much higher than they should for some items because the facilities haven’t been maintained. “They fail, and then urgently need to be fixed within 24-28 hours so they spend a huge amount of public money to do so.” Analysis of the health service’s annual reports show its budgeted expenditure for maintenance and repairs across its hospitals has not increased in real terms for at least seven years. A NMHS spokesperson said they “acknowledge” the ageing infrastructure at the hospital and said it had a system in place to prioritise upgrades with urgent and critical maintenance and repairs undertaken immediately. Earlier this week, the hospital’s own internal documents revealed frustrations from staff over the conditions. In January 2023 a code yellow emergency was declared by ICU staff due to a major pipe leak. Rectification works were requested to be completed within seven days. It took almost 12 months for the damage to be repaired. In many of the incidents, staff reported delays that they said were putting services at risk. “Water leak in ROOF above xray unit,” a staff member reported in August 2023. “High risk to damage (of) expensive machinery.” It wasn’t until April the following year that the leak was addressed. Other parts of the hospital damaged by water have been left damaged for so long that staff fear they have been exposed to toxic black mould. “Leak above electrical equipment still has not been fixed. Black mould has now grown on adjacent roof panel. This panel is also now drooping. Worried mould is making employees sick and also worried about roof collapsing (has done so in the past),” a report from June 2024 said. “Now office is occupied, if roof were to collapse this will cause massive problems for health and safety. This has to be fixed ASAP, been reporting this leak for weeks. Multiple hazard reports have been raised.” Water-quality testing results at the hospital have also shown vulnerable patients have been unknowingly put at risk of contracting the potentially deadly legionnaires’ disease. Health authorities know that legionella bacteria, which causes the serious pneumonia-like respiratory infection, has been found at unacceptable levels almost 60 times in the past two years. The hospital’s own guidelines state any legionella result of 10 colony forming units per millilitre (CFU/mL) or higher requires remedial action. A sample taken from a scrub sink in the hospital’s neurological intervention and imaging service returned a reading of 5200CFU/mL, hundreds of times above the acceptable level. Concerning levels of pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacteria which can cause infections in the blood, lungs and urinary tract were also detected as well as a potentially deadly amoeba, of which there are no safe levels. It was found in eight water samples including in a shower in the emergency department in May 2024, but it took more than two months to rectify. There was a positive detection in a male bathroom shower near hospital operating theatres.