DHB manager praises local earthquake response

DHB manager praises local earthquake response

24 July 2013

Wairarapa and Hutt Valley DHB’s Chief Operating Officer Pete Chandler is full of praise for staff and services which ‘pulled out all stops’ to keep the Hutt hospital environment safe and functional after the earthquakes this week.

“It was a great team effort,” says Pete. “On Sunday night, the quake caused a pipe in the Community Health Building roof-top plant room to burst, flooding the third floor and some of the second. The Fire Service were outstanding, arriving within minutes of callout and working through the night to divert and pump out the water. Off-duty maintenance staff came in to help with the cleanup and replace ceiling tiles, and ChemDry followed behind drying out the sodden carpets. District nursing and Public Health staff found ways of working around the renovators, to make sure patients and our community still received the services they needed.”

At the same time the lifts in the main Heretaunga block, as programmed, returned to the ground floor for recalibration after the quake. “We had a patient waiting to go to theatre for surgery on another floor,” says Pete. “We were just putting in place an alternative transfer route when the Schindlers lift engineer, who happens to live in Queensgate, arrived and put the main lift back in action within minutes.”

Chief Executive Graham Dyer also praised staff for doing a ‘tremendous job keeping patients calm and well informed about what was happening.’ He said that while staff were encouraged to text home to check on family, not one staff member requested to leave their duty, or failed to turn up for night shift on Sunday night after the quake.

“The last few days have given us a valuable opportunity to test and refine our emergency response plans,” says Mr Dyer. “We are delighted that evaluation of all our hospital buildings by seismic engineers was able to be completed so promptly, and are using the situation to test setting up and running our Emergency Operations Centre and business continuity plans. I’m pleased to say all our buildings are safe to occupy, and health services are now fully functional again.”

ENDS

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