Changes Get Hold On Mould
Newcastle Herald
Saturday December 13, 2008
IMPROVED air-conditioning and a plastic wall dividing John Hunter Hospital's medical records department have reduced the need for staff to wear face masks to protect themselves from mould.
Hospital management is confident that mould concentrations are declining and that the health of staff, some of whom have suffered rashes, respiratory problems and headaches, is improving.About 30 staff walked off the job last month over the issue.Testing of the department's Cardiff storage centre found one sample contained mould concentrations almost 50 times greater than World Health Organisation standards.Staff have since returned to work, but must now wear goggles, gloves and face masks.Michael Di Rienzo, Hunter New England Area Health Service director for acute networks, said a plastic wall now separated the files from where staff worked.He said the hospital had lodged an insurance claim because the mould originated at the storage centre, which was flooded in June last year."The staff only have to wear the [protective equipment] when handling the records now," Mr Di Rienzo said.Staff were wearing gloves to avoid exposing their skin. The next step is to remediate each file from mould. Management will decide next week on the method.It could take a year to treat each file."These are A4-size folders with people's medical information on them and some individual records have thousands of pages to them," Mr Di Rienzo said.Medical records staff will have their health assessed and reviewed in the coming week.
© 2008 Newcastle Herald