• Patient Voice Aotearoa says Dunedin Hospital should not be performing surgeries if it can not be sure it is safe
• Former Southern District Health Board chair says sterilisation issue is a sign the new hospital is needed
• Dunedin Mayor says Dunedin Hospital plan already reduced as much as possible

Dunedin Hospital needs to resolve its sterilisation issue if it is to continue carrying out surgeries, a patients advocacy group says.

A document leaked to RNZ shows that Dunedin hospital staff are reporting about 500 incidents a year of theatre instruments found to be contaminated.

The report says the sterilisation centre is not fit for purpose.

Advocacy group Patient Voice Aotearoa chairperson Malcolm Mulholland says people about to undergo surgery are often nervous enough already, without having to worry about issue like whether the theatre instruments have been sterilised.

"I suspect there is probably quite a few nervous patients working their way through Dunedin Hospital who require surgery," said Mulholland.

"What they do want to have when they are on the operating table is to have faith and confidence in the hands of the people operating on them, and the equipment that is being used."

He said the situation was appalling, and needed to be urgently resolved.

"You can not perform surgery and not have sterilised equipment. The two don't go hand in hand. If Dunedin Hospital is to continue to operate on patients then they must have a sterilisation system in place."

Similar issues were raised about Dunedin Hospital in 2021, when five surgeries started before medical staff realised their instruments were not properly sterilised.

Pete Hodgson, former chairperson of the Southern District Health Board, former Health Minister and former head of the governance group for the new Dunedin Hospital - said it was a sign that that hospital urgently needed to be replaced.

He said the sterilisation issue was due to problems with the current design of the hospital.

"If you go and have a look at that part of the existing hospital, the corridors are used for storage, the whole place is cramped, and really no surprise that it continues to run in to further problems."

Hodgson said he thought it was still safe to have surgery in Dunedin Hospital, but he said that was due to the staff constantly finding work-arounds to make it safe.

"It is just that it is highly inefficient, and there are delays all the while. And expensive and clever people are held up because of those inefficiencies."

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton said having to work in those conditions was very stressful for the health staff.

"The most skilled doctor in the world can't do the best job for their patient if the equipment they are being asked to use can't be relied upon. This needs to be a priority. This seems like another story where the budgets seem to be more important to the funders that the quality of care people are able to access."

Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich said the figures were alarming, but at least the numerous reports were a sign that hospital staff were doing a good job of raising the issue.

A new Dunedin hospital is currently being built, but Health NZ commissioner Lester Levy has said all capital development projects, including the Dunedin Hospital, are under review.

Radich said the problems showed the problems with the current hospital.

"This is an example of the age of some of the equipment and the facilities being used at present.

"Clearly we are overdue to get this new hospital, and it services a really wide region, all of Otago and Southland and into Canterbury too. There is a very clear and present need for it."

He said he hoped Levy would see that the plan for the new hospital, which has already been reduced in size, can not be shrunk any further.

Published with permission