Major hospital investigating chemical exposure risk after glove bungle - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The nursing union says there are inconsistent standards across hospitals for handling hazardous chemicals. (ABC News: Darryl Torpy)

A major Melbourne hospital has launched an investigation into whether gloves used by some staff provided appropriate protection against chemotherapy chemicals.

Some parts of the Royal Children's Hospital stopped using the gloves a decade ago, but others continued using them until Victoria's workplace regulator raised the issue in August.

Hospital management have hired an independent organisation to test and assess the safety of the gloves and investigate possible exposure risk to staff. 

Clinicians at Victoria's leading paediatric hospital have been wearing gloves that were not tested or approved for administering chemotherapy, raising concerns some staff may have been exposed to toxic chemicals for as long as 10 years. 

The sterile gloves provided by the Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) were not rated as protective for handling cytotoxic agents, such as chemotherapy, prompting the state's workplace regulator to raise the issue in August.

The issue occurred despite some areas of the hospital rolling out gloves with better protection when international standards for handling the chemicals were updated 10 years ago.

But other staff in the hospital, including in the Kookaburra Cancer Care ward, were still provided with the same gloves.  

WorkSafe Victoria notified the hospital about the concern on August 26, prompting RCH to conduct a review and replace the gloves with those that met the standard.

Workplace regulator WorkSafe Victoria notified the hospital about the issue in August. (Supplied: WorkSafe)

In an email notifying staff, the hospital's chief executive Peter Steer and executive director of nursing services Kath Riddell apologised and said an investigation was underway.

The hospital has since hired an independent organisation to test and assess the safety of the gloves and investigate the possible exposure risk to staff. 

"We also want to acknowledge that concerns about our sterile gloves appear to have been raised many years ago," the email said. 

"We are reviewing what was raised, how it was handled and why the response differed across areas. 

"We are sorry for the worry this has and will cause. We understand that waiting for answers about possible exposure is especially hard when you have done this work for years." 

Hospital management has apologised and launched an investigation. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)

A hospital worker, who is not authorised to speak publicly, said it was a privilege to care for children with cancer and their families so it was devastating to learn about the issue.

"These drugs can be dangerous. They're toxic, they can affect our fertility and our overall health," the worker said.

"Now I'm left worrying whether I've been exposed, whether my colleagues have been exposed. It's not right."

An RCH spokesperson said the issue was escalated to hospital leadership in late August, but did not explain how only some areas of the hospital took action a decade ago.

They said RCH was committed to being open with affected staff about what it knows and what it is doing to find answers. 

"We will share further information with staff as it becomes available and continue to support them," the spokesperson said.

Maddy Harradence from the Victorian branch of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation said it was "completely unacceptable" for nurses and other healthcare workers to be potentially exposed.

Ms Harradence said the union was pushing for the hospital’s investigation to uncover the level of risk and potential exposure for staff, while also establishing effective contact tracing of all staff who wore the gloves while working with the drugs.

The union's Maddy Harradence is pushing for a thorough investigation. (ABC News: Tyrone Dalton)

She said the incident has also exposed inconsistencies in standards for handling hazardous chemicals across hospitals in Victoria. 

"It seems to me that there is a variance, particularly in cancer nursing, on when they use certain gloves, who double gloves, who doesn't double glove," Ms Harradence said.

"We actually think the regulator needs to be putting out a safety alert that says this particular glove is not chemo rated and should not be used in these areas.

"[There are] lots of learnings in relation to consistent clinical governance, consistent procedures, consistent [personal protective equipment] and mitigation of risk for us to take away from this."

HealthShare Victoria, the body responsible for procurement in Victoria's public health system, was investigating whether the gloves were being used to handle or administer cytotoxic drugs in other hospitals.

A Victorian Health Department spokesperson confirmed they were investigating if other hospitals were also using the gloves not rated for handling chemotherapy. 

"We are working with HealthShare Victoria and health services to understand whether this issue extends beyond the Royal Children's Hospital and what further action or guidance may be required," they said.