Failure to fix lead issues at drinking sites in Perth Children’s Hospital prompts ‘detailed investigation’

Dangerous amounts of lead have again been detected in drinking water at Perth Children’s Hospital, just months after calls for the WA Government to be more transparent about levels of the toxic metal. The West Australian can reveal the latest PCH quarterly potable water testing — conducted in November — found two sites with lead levels exceeding the safe limit set by national guidelines. Both of the contaminated sites had previously recorded lead exceeding the levels, which were reopened after being “remediated”. The Child and Adolescent Health Service, which oversees the hospital, told The West the two areas were once again offline. It comes after a bombshell investigation by The West Australian last year revealed high levels of lead had been detected between the start of 2023 and the end of March 2024 — just years after then-Health Minister Roger Cook had declared the hospital’s water was safe to drink. The Premier, whose government had kept the dangerous amounts of the metal a secret from the public, responded after initial reports by claiming the contamination issues were “well and truly in the rearview mirror.” “There’s been no exceedances of any lead levels at PCH since April 2024, so this is well and truly in the rearview mirror,” Mr Cook said in September. Just hours after the Premier’s bold declaration, five samples taken from the hospital’s supply showed new excessive levels of the toxic metal. WA Health Minister Meredith Hammat then pinned the blame on the CAHS. “(The September results) weren’t brought to my attention. As Minister I was very disappointed about that when we had specifically asked questions of them,” Ms Hammat said at the time. In the wake of the shock reports, Ms Hammat issued a directive that “significant exceedances” from public hospital water testing that presented a risk to patients, visitors or staff be reported to her “as a matter of urgency”. “The most recent results weren’t brought to my attention. As minister I was very disappointed about that when we had specifically asked questions of them,” Ms Hammat said. “That’s why we’ve put in place a new procedure to ensure that results are regularly fed up to the Chief Health Officer and that, when there are concerns, they come to me as minister. “I do want to be able to assure the public that our hospitals are safe and that we have the appropriate testing regimes in place to confirm that.” A spokeswoman for Ms Hammat told The West Australian this week the latest amounts of lead in the hospital water did not meet the criteria for her to be alerted of the issue. Ms Hammat would not disclose what qualified as a “significant exceedance”. “No such reports have been received by the Minister for Health’s office since the directive began,” a spokeswoman for the Health Minister said this week. A CAHS spokesman told The West that the November testing of potable water at PCH identified two lead results exceeding the guideline levels “in areas previously identified”, triggering a “more detailed investigation”. “The two sites previously identified were remediated and retested without exceedance and placed back in service,” the spokesman said. “Following further exceedances in the November scheduled testing, the sites were immediately taken offline for more detailed investigation and remediation, and remain offline. “Exceedances are typically isolated to specific outlets or fixtures, and do not impact the entire hospital water system. The water at PCH is safe to drink.” The exact scale of the two latest incidents, or where in the hospital they occurred, has not been revealed. Some of PCH test samples last year were about six times the ADWG’s safe limit of 0.005 milligrams of lead per litre of drinking water. Excessive lead intake can cause severe brain damage, with infants, children and pregnant women most susceptible, according to the National Health and Medical Research Council. Shadow Health Minister Libby Mettam called on the Cook Government to “stop downplaying” the lead issues at PCH and instead “start treating it with the seriousness it demands”. “What concerns me most is that the Health Minister continues to insist there is ‘no issue’, while refusing to disclose the actual lead levels detected. Parents have a right to full transparency,” she said. “I’m calling on the Minister to immediately release the (latest) lead testing results for these sites, including the levels detected, and provide a full written briefing on the steps being taken to permanently prevent further exceedances. “Obviously, the remediation has not been effective, and the underlying risk has not been eliminated. “PCH should be the safest place in the State for sick children, under the Cook Government’s management it is not.” The hospital has been plagued by lead problems since its construction and was a major part of its opening being delayed from 2015 to 2018. In 2017, “disturbed residues” in the QEII Medical Centre ring main and lead leaching from the brass fittings and fixtures connected to PCH’s plumbing system were identified as the likely causes of lead contamination during construction of PCH. The revelation became a major pressure point for the former Liberal-National Government, which had picked John Holland as the managing contract for PCH’s construction — a build that blew out to $1.2 billion, partly due to the lead issues. In 2016, Mr Cook — who was Shadow Health Minister at the time — described reports of lead in the water at PCH as something that “strikes fear in peoples’ hearts” and urged the Barnett Government to get on top of the issue. Since PCH’s opening in May 2018, there have been more than 50 exceedances of lead found during water testing.