Faulty air conditioning at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide has led to emergency patients being transferred and the cancellation of elective surgery.
According to a report in The Adelaide Advertiser newspaper poor air flow at the hospital has stopped surgeries and led to the cancellation of elective lists for the second time in three weeks.
Humid weather has made the situation much worse with administrators advising staff that they were waiting for the weather to improve before elective surgery could begin again.
Hundreds of patients have been inconvenienced with some waiting hours for treatment before being told to go home.
A senior surgeon confirmed to The Advertiser some affected patients, including cancer sufferers, had travelled hundreds of kilometres to Adelaide only to be told their surgery was cancelled with no time rescheduled.
The issue of a malfunctioning air conditioning unit at the QEH is understood to have occurred in February when more than a hundred surgeries were cancelled.
QEH staff said the same problem occurred last summer but the problem was never fixed.
The surgeon said dehumidifiers had not worked and senior administrators had discussed bringing in other equipment to solve the problem but were told by SA Health the cost of about $250,000 was “too high”.
In a statement, Todd McEwan, chief operating officer, Central Adelaide Local Health Network said the “technical fault in the operating theatres air conditioning” had resulted in approximately 90 non-urgent elective surgery procedures being postponed this week.