Royal Adelaide Hospital loses power affecting surgeries

Some surgeries at South Australia’s new Royal Adelaide Hospital have been disrupted by a power outage caused by a software failure.

The outage caused a generator to fail for up to 20 minutes on Wednesday morning, effecting two operations the ABC reported. 

No patients were adversely affected and the software responsible for the failure was being examined.  

Associate Professor William Tam was working on a procedure on a 97-year-old patient when the power dropped out for what he estimated to be around 20 minutes. 

‘The anaesthetic machines still had access to power, but I was totally in the dark without any information about what was happening to my instrument which was still inside the patient,’ Professor Tam said. 

‘Thank goodness there was a degree of calm amongst the team. We kept thinking the generator would kick back in, it didn’t and we had to make the call to … complete the procedure as quickly as we can.’ 

He said there was no harm to the patient however was disappointed that the unacceptable situation arose in the first instance.  

The outage caused a generator to fail for up to 20 minutes on Wednesday 

Professor Tam said it is imperative hospital staff and patients have confidence in the functions of the facility. 

‘But power reliability is a non-negotiable function.’ 

The Australian Medical Associate has sought support from SA Health to address the reliability of power. 

No patients were greatly affected and the software responsible was being examined