A woman has been charged after gas supplies were allegedly sabotaged at two Sydney hospitals, putting patients into potentially “catastrophic” situations.
New South Wales police alleged that the woman, 42, cut Kareena private hospital’s non-medical gas supply and water mains at 12.20am on Tuesday.
Police also allege the woman then “switched off the gas main” at Sutherland hospital, which is located on the same road in Caringbah as Kareena private, at 1.30am.
The loss of gas forced Sutherland hospital to switch to portable oxygen and air as part of its contingency plans, according to the NSW health minister, Ryan Park.
Park said “the cause of the loss of gases is alleged to be deliberate sabotage”.
“To [allegedly] do this is beyond serious. It could have been catastrophic.”
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Park said he had been informed that a person allegedly scaled a wall and gained access to a restricted area at Sutherland hospital.
The minister said it was unknown what relationship the woman had to the hospitals but it would form part of the police investigation.
“Medical gases are relied on by people who are experiencing serious illness across the hospital, and they are used often to keep people alive, sustain life and treat people,” he said. “To do this in any way, shape or form, is to put the lives of some very seriously ill people at risk in a hospital.”
The woman was arrested in Miranda about 4am on Tuesday for breach of bail, police said.
The woman was charged on Tuesday afternoon with two counts of public nuisance, two counts of entering prescribed premises of any person without lawful excuse, sabotage, and destroying or damaging property and breach of bail.
She was also charged with tampering with a fire alarm or fire signalling apparatus and trespass on protected premises in relation to an alleged incident at a Darlinghurst hostel on Monday.
The woman was refused bail to appear before Sutherland local court on Wednesday.
Park said gas systems had been restored by South Eastern Sydney local health district and Sutherland hospital teams “within approximately two hours”.
“I want to assure the community there was no impact to patient care and that the system has returned to operating as per normal,” he said.
“Access to gas systems in NSW public hospitals is restricted. We will review the incident to see what improvements can be implemented.”
Asked about how such critical facilities were accessed, the minister said: “If there are things that we could do better across the system, including, but not restricted to Sutherland, then that’s something that we will certainly look at.”
Ramsay Health Care, which operates Kareena private hospital, said all services had been quickly restored with minimal disruption and no impact to patient care: “The hospital is operating as normal today.”
