By Michael Newhouse
SERVICES at Sunshine Hospital were thrown into chaos last week when the air-conditioning system stopped as Melbourne sweltered through one of its hottest days of the year.
The temperatures inside the hospital began to rise about 2pm last Tuesday 16 January, after a burst air-conditioning pipe forced the entire hospital’s cooling system to shut down.
The hospital cancelled all elective surgery – an estimated 25 operations, according to Western Health, which runs the hospital – and closed all operating theatres apart for one which was kept open for emergencies.
About 3.30pm hospital staff made a desperate dash to Sunshine’s Bunnings hardware store to pick up 80 portable fans, with about 20 employees assembling the makeshift air-conditioning system in the basement for distribution around the hospital.
“It was just a bit hairy yesterday,” Western Health spokesperson Michael Sinclair told Star last Wednesday, only hours after the hospital had returned to its normal temperature around 10am.
Mr Sinclair said he didn’t know exactly what the temperature reached, but said the hospital was most concerned for the patients’ welfare and safety, giving priority to maternity, palliative care and dialysis patients.
“We just had to maintain it as best we could,” he said.
The problems came as Melbourne sweated through a day of 40 degree heat and spotted power outages, with traffic across the city gridlocked as traffic lights failed.
Western Health said its air-conditioning failure was not connected to the power cuts, although the hospital’s emergency department was placed on bypass during the crisis.
St Albans, Sunshine, Sunshine North and West, Ardeer, Cairnlea and Deer Park were all affected by power outages, although police and emergency service crews were kept quiet over the period of outages, which lasted from around 4pm and into the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Acting Senior Sergeant Tim O’Connor from the Sunshine Police station told Star the outages caused no problems that required police assistance in the Sunshine area, while Brad Dalgleish, State Emergency Service unit controller for Keilor, said last Tuesday was also quiet.
