Theatres reopened and surgeries going ahead today

Thursday 08 November 2018

After working through the night, engineers fixed the faulty air conditioning unit at Guernsey's hospital meaning two of the island's four operating theatres reopened on Wednesday.

The leak on Tuesday tea time caused enough damage that all four theatres had to be closed immediately, with the Princess Elizabeth Hospital then having to rely on the theatre within the Day Patient Unit for any emergency surgeries which had to be carried out.

The heat exchanger above the four theatres failed at around 17:00 Tuesday, when two patients were still waiting to have their surgeries.

The clean-up operation had to start immediately along with repairs so both patients were "transitioned safely out of theatres and back to the ward." As the four operating theatres at the hospital were all affected by the damaged unit, they all had to be closed.

That also meant hospital staff had to postpone six elective surgeries and six cases in the Day Patient Unit on Wednesday, to ensure the hospital had the necessary theatre space in the Day Patient Unit available to cope with any emergency situation.

Thanks to the sterling efforts of our Estates team Theatres 1 and 2 at the PEH are now back on line ahead of schedule. Well done to all. Great if thanks can be passed on by media. They deserve it.

— Heidi Soulsby (@HeidiSoulsby) November 7, 2018

While Health and Social Care President Deputy Heidi Soulsby apologised for the inconvenience this caused and praised staff via social media, Elaine Burgess, the island's Deputy Chief Nurse, who has been managing the situation at the hospital throughout the day, also offered her own apologies to patients and praised staff.

"I would like to echo Deputy Soulsby’s apology to anyone who has been affected by the forced closure of the operating theatres. 

"Postponing any scheduled operation causes anxiety and concern for patients who have, understandably, been preparing for their appointment for some time. It is not something that we do lightly, but in this situation it was unavoidable."

 

Pictured: Deputy Heidi Soulsby who has political responsibility for health and social care. 

HSC confirmed that by 13:00 on Wednesday, theatres one and two were back in action, both had been deep cleaned and five elective operations and four emergency operations were due to be done during the afternoon. 

The Theatre in the Day Patient Unit is still being held as an emergency theatre for any obstetric cases until at least 18:00 today, with all four theatres expected to be up and running as normal by 07:00 on Thursday,

Mark de Garis, Chief Secretary for HSC said:

"I would like to add my apologies for anyone who has been affected by this unfortunate incident. In addition I would like to sincerely thank all staff who have worked extremely hard to reinstate 50% of our theatre capacity less than 24 hours after the water damage occurred."

While work was being done to repair the faulty unit, engineers also checked all of the other heat exchange units within the hospital at the same time. 

Pictured: Guernsey's Princess Elizabeth Hospital.