A major gas outage affecting parts of New South Wales’s central west has forced Lithgow hospital into postponing a raft of scheduled patient surgeries, as locals wait up to a month for a broken gas pipeline to be repaired.
Lithgow and its emergency department remain open, however the facility’s reliance on natural gas to power its hot water services has resulted in some “non-urgent” procedures being delayed, despite urgent attempts for alternative heating methods and temporary gas supplies to be trucked in, a state health official confirmed.
Residents of Lithgow have been using kettles to prepare water for bathing, restaurants with bottled gas are cooking warm meals, and tourists have been cancelling planned trips to the regional town of about 20,000 since gas supply ended abruptly amid a cold snap last week.
The hospital’s requirement for hot water to sterilise surgical equipment onsite is one factor causing some surgeries to be postponed.
A Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District spokesperson told Guardian Australia that clinical care of patients is continuing during the gas outage “emergency”.
“Some non-urgent patient procedures may be postponed if clinically appropriate, and staff will directly contact those who are affected. Unless patients are contacted by hospital staff, they should present as planned for their appointments or procedures,” the spokesperson said.
“Hot water services at the hospital have been impacted and arrangements are being made to ensure patients are kept comfortable. Equipment for alternative water heating has been sourced and is being connected to the Hospital.”
People in towns including Lithgow, Bathurst, Wallerawang and Oberon woke up on Thursday to find their homes had been cut off from natural gas – the result of a leak in the pipeline between Young and Lithgow. More than 20,000 people are affected.
The outage came amid a spell of cold weather in which snow fell in the centre-west of the state.
Flooding is believed to have ruptured a section of pipeline under the Macquarie River with flood waters prolonging repair efforts.
Returning gas service to the region requires the pipeline’s operator, APA Group, to locate the leak and purge the pipeline of air and gas, before returning supply. Gas supplier Jemena must also carry out make-safe checks at each individual customer’s property – a lengthy process that means residents are facing up to a month without gas.
Supply has already returned to about half of Bathurst with the rest of the town expected to be restored by the end of the week, according to a Jemena spokesperson, who explained Bathurst’s location on the pipeline allowed gas supply to be resumed earlier as a valve downstream could be shut down.
Safety checks are not yet complete across Lithgow, Oberon and Wallerawang.
A temporary pipeline is set to be in service in two weeks, but a permanent solution is only expected in four weeks. While gas tankers have been trucked in for critical customers such as hospitals, households that relied on natural gas at their homes and businesses are still without heating, stoves and hot water.
