{"id":819817,"date":"2026-07-24T01:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T01:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/819817\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T01:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T01:08:11","slug":"how-an-insect-repellent-left-almost-a-dozen-hospital-staff-sick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/819817\/","title":{"rendered":"How an insect repellent left almost a dozen hospital staff sick"},"content":{"rendered":"

About a dozen staff became sick at the Flinders Medical Centre emergency department early yesterday morning after the accidental release of an outdoor insect repellent.<\/p>\n

Three staff members were hospitalised, with all three later discharged from the hospital yesterday evening.<\/p>\n

SA Health chief executive Robyn Lawrence said no patients got sick as a result of the incident.<\/p>\n

So, how did we get here?<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The incident occurred about 2am yesterday. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)<\/p>\n

How was the repellent released?<\/p>\n

The incident occurred about 2am yesterday when a staff member was checking a patient’s bag to ensure there was nothing in it that could pose a safety risk to the patient when left alone.<\/p>\n

While going through the patient’s belongings, the repellent’s lid was accidentally knocked off and the aerosol was released.<\/p>\n

Dr Lawrence said the product was understood to be a fogger mosquito repellent, which releases an aerosol fog fo insecticide into the air.<\/p>\n

Following the incident, the area was cleaned and thought to be under control.<\/p>\n

“As staff became unwell, we got concerned we needed additional support to manage the scene to make sure it was safe for staff and our patients,” Dr Lawrence said.<\/p>\n

Within hours, 11 staff members from the emergency department became unwell after reporting predominantly respiratory symptoms, including shortness of breath and difficulty breathing in.<\/p>\n

Three staff members were admitted to hospital, with one in a serious but stable condition.<\/p>\n

All three have since been discharged.<\/p>\n

\"SA<\/p>\n

Robyn Lawrence says the lid was knocked off the insect repellent by a member of the hospital staff. (ABC News: Evelyn Manfield)<\/p>\n

The Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) arrived at the site about 10am to ensure the area was appropriately cleaned and to determine why ongoing symptoms were occurring in staff.<\/p>\n

This included a range of atmospheric tests, and testing of the surfaces and the equipment in those zones to ensure nothing was left contaminated.<\/p>\n

Can patients visit Flinders Medical Centre?<\/p>\n

Twelve of the 59 beds in the emergency department were closed for safety reasons, but have since reopened.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr Lawrence said the hospital was redirecting resources across the system to share the load and take pressure off Flinders Medical Centre during the closure.<\/p>\n

What happens now?<\/p>\n

The Australian Medical Association in South Australia (AMA) last night said it was aware of the incident.<\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/p>\n

Peter Subramaniam says he is confident SA Health will investigate the incident properly. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)<\/p>\n

“We won’t comment until the details are released by SA Health,” AMA president Peter Subramaniam said.<\/p>\n

“[We’re] absolutely confident that SA Health will undertake the appropriate processes to ensure that there is an investigation, and any learning from it we would hope will improve our situation.<\/p>\n

“At the moment, the focus really is on recovering from this incident and taking care of colleagues who need care.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About a dozen staff became sick at the Flinders Medical Centre emergency department early yesterday morning after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3443,45470,64,63,60587,62398,79598,9050,4082,394072,182404,182403,395011,44,45460,395012],"class_list":["post-819817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-adelaide","tag-ama","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-contamination","tag-emergency-department","tag-er","tag-flinders-medical-centre","tag-hospital","tag-insect-repellent","tag-metropolitan-fire-service","tag-mfs","tag-mosquito-repellent","tag-news","tag-sa-health","tag-south-australia-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}