Melbourne’s Austin Hospital has been forced to cancel 150 elective surgeries after a number of their medical washers broke down.
In a statement, the hospital said it had realised there were issues with their medical washers last week, prompting them to cancel surgeries planned for Friday, Monday and Tuesday.
Medical washers are used to clean and disinfect equipment used in hospitals.
The washers were removed from service while they were fixed.
The hospital has apologised to patients and their families for any inconvenience caused by the cancellations.
“As soon as our issue is fully resolved we’ll be rescheduling all cancelled elective surgery,” a spokeswoman from the Austin Hospital said.
“We’ll prioritise patients who are classified as category one (surgery recommended within 30 days), followed by category two (within 90 days) and category three (within 365 days).”
On Monday, five of the seven washers were back up and running and technicians were working to get the last two to full capacity.
“We’ve implemented a rigorous testing process so we can ensure they are functioning to the highest standard before we return them to service,” said the spokeswoman.
Emergency and essential surgery was still performed while the washers were out of action.