NT Health calls for new facility as Royal Darwin Hospital recovers from Tropical Cyclone Fina
Staff who were working inside the facility told the ABC bricks fell through the ceiling into an area near the intensive care unit. (ABC News: Sam Parry)
In short:
NT Health head Chris Hosking says bricks at Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) came loose and fell when Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina hit the Top End.
He says the territory's largest hospital is "literally creaking at the seams" and wants the federal government's support to build a replacement.
The category three weather system impacted a small number of elective surgeries, but RDH's code brown has since been lifted.
The head of the NT health department has renewed calls for federal funding after Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina left the territory's largest hospital "literally creaking at the seams".
NT Health chief executive Chris Hosking said Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) needed to be replaced with a new facility, which simply wasn't be possible without Commonwealth support.
"This old hospital's just about had its day, and I wouldn't like to be battening down for a [category] three cyclone here in 10 years time," Mr Hosking said.
The ceiling partially collapsed on the first floor of Royal Darwin Hospital as Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina passed Darwin. (Supplied)
As Cyclone Fina moved over the Top End on Saturday, Mr Hosking said bricks from an external wall of RDH came loose.
The bricks then fell outward and landed on the roof of a lower section of the hospital, leading to a partial ceiling collapse on level one.
"It was actually part of the building facade, which had been there for a long time, and with the strong wind and rain it came loose and fell," he said.
Mr Hosking said water leaked "into the structure of the building … down through the concrete and unfortunately we saw an internal ceiling collapse".
"We have a little bit of ceiling damage in the passage way towards the intensive care unit (ICU), which required us to re-route some internal traffic yesterday," he said.
"I did see the pictures online on social media and they certainly look quite confronting when you see them, but pleasingly the damage was all internal building fit-out and not the actual core building structure."
RDH is the NT's largest hospital, but the facility was damaged during this weekend's cyclone. (ABC News: Sam Parry)
The ABC was able to view the damaged area, but was not authorised to take photos inside the facility.
Access to the ICU's walkway was shut on Monday, with caution tape and orange hazard cones barring entry.
Patients were being diverted through a different route, with the ICU understood to be unaffected by damage.
Half a century since Cyclone Tracy
RDH was built to withstand a category five cyclone, opening after the deadly Cyclone Tracy hit in 1974.
This weekend's extreme weather event was the strongest to pass Darwin since then and Mr Hosking said "we really do need to seriously look at" replacing the ageing facility in TC Fina's wake.
"Generally, these assets have a working life of about 50 years and we're bearing down on that now," he said.
"Not only that, the Darwin of today is very different to the Darwin of the late 70s — we've got a bigger population.
"Tiwi, here on Rocklands Drive, is probably not the optimal location for a major tertiary teaching hospital.
"As you can see, we've got building works going on here, we've been adding capacity because we are literally creaking at the seams.
"It's a 400-bed hospital, and most days she's pretty full up, so we do need to position for the future and I think it's about time we stopped tacking bits on the side of Royal Darwin."
Chris Hosking wants to federal government's support to create a new Darwin hospital. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)
Mr Hosking said building a new hospital "that can serve Territorians for another 50 years" won't be possible without federal government support.
"That is beyond the capacity of the NT government to fund, there's no two ways about that," he said.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler was contacted for comment, but his office referred the ABC's query to Minister for Emergency Management Kristy McBain.
"Under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements, essential public assets may be considered as eligible for reimbursement," she said in a statement.
Kristy McBain visited the Top End this week to touch base with locals impacted by the cyclone. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)
Code brown lifts at RDH
RDH declared a code brown when Darwin entered the cyclone warning zone on Friday morning, discharging patients to prepare for emergency admissions.
But today, NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro confirmed RDH was "back to full and normal operation".
"There has been a small disruption to elective surgeries, about 10 elective surgeries have been cancelled today and about six tomorrow," she said.
"Otherwise our hospitals are back fully functioning."
Mr Hosking said he "would really send out an absolute heartfelt thank you to all of our staff", with around 800 people working different shifts over the weekend.
"We had people who spent Saturday night here, they brought their sleeping bags and had a sleepover in the auditorium," he said.
Standard shifts at RDH generally last eight hours, but many staff "worked very long periods" over the weekend — in some cases, workers were on-site for more than 24 hours.
Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina caused damage across parts of Darwin, but authorities say there were no fatalities related to the extreme weather event. (ABC News: Laetitia Lemke)
NT Police Commissioner Martin Dole said there had been no reports of injuries or widespread property damage across any of the communities impacted by Cyclone Fina.
But Mr Hosking said some patients had presented with injuries sustained during the clean up.
"Nothing too serious at this stage, but I would implore people — if you're using chainsaws and cutting implements when you're out there doing your clean up, please be safe," Mr Hosking said.
The NT Health boss suggested wearing eye protection and protective footwear.
"Put a pair of decent shoes on and just be very, very careful with those chainsaws," he said.
"If you have an accident we will patch you up, but we'd prefer not to see you."