The South Australian government will review back-up power systems in the state’s hospitals following the statewide blackout last month.
Speaking to ABC radio this week, SA Health acting chief executive Vickie Kaminski said an engineer will conduct a full review of the backup power for all of the state’s hospitals after investigating the Flinders Medical Centre and Port Augusta failures.
Ms Kaminski said the backup generator at Flinders Medical Centre failed due to a fuel pump issue and 17 patients had to be transferred to the Flinders Private Hospital and some needed help breathing with manual respirators.
Embryos at that hospital’s fertility clinic were lost when the incubators were compromised.
The generator at Port Augusta Hospital failed and was replaced with two smaller generators.
The Royal Adelaide Hospital has recently undergone a $1.85 billion upgrade including a new backup generation system designed and installed by Penske Power Systems. The Royal Adelaide Hospital operated as per usual, providing vital health services to around 800 in patients and out patients.
