Hunter New England Health is taking the recent infection control breach at Inverell Hospital very seriously, and an investigation of procedures in the hospital’s theatres is already under way.

In addition, we will be carrying out a further review of infection control procedures across the entire hospital.

If either process recommends specific actions that need to occur, we will make it a priority to immediately act on those.

Hunter New England Health identified 218 patients who were impacted as a result of this infection control breach, and all 218 have now been contacted.

While I understand people may be concerned about the recent incident, I want to reassure people that a panel of experts convened by Hunter New England Health and NSW Health assessed the risk to patients as being low.

I would also like to highlight that this event was in no way the result of cost-cutting or budget

restrictions.

This was an issue with infection control protocols.

Again, we sincerely apologise for any distress this event may have caused patients and their families.

We will continue working hard to investigate this, support the patients involved, and take necessary steps to prevent this from happening again.

Scott McLachlan

Operations Primary and

Community Networks

director

New Lambton