Royal Adelaide Hospital emergency department geared for disasters, from chemical spills to disease to plane crashes

The Royal Adelaide Hospital's rooftop helipad had room for two helicopters. The hospital was engineered to withstand major earthquakes and extreme weather events and could continue to operate for 48 hours if completely cut off from outside services such as water and power.

The Royal Adelaide Hospital played a lead role in South Australia’s disaster management strategies, with capacity to support victims of man-made and natural catastrophes.

The hospital, opended in 2017 on North Terrace, Adelaide city, was the complex multi-trauma destination for the state, with senior doctors and nurses onsite around the clock to respond to life-threatening emergencies. The hospital is served by a helipad accommodating two helicopters. All stacked together at the western end of the hospital below the helipad were e trauma modules include the emergency department, intensive care unit and operating theatres.

One of South Australia’s three adult major trauma services, the Royal Adelaide Hospital’s emergency department was equipped to respond to major disasters, such as a chemical spill, with decontamination showers enabling mass decontamination, while having five negative pressure rooms and a quarantine room crucial in an infectious outbreak. The quarantine room was designed to the standards required to support patients with highly infectious diseases such as ebola and could be segregated from the rest of the emergency department.

The hospital had the design flexibility to convert specific spaces into additional clinical areas in the case of a mass casualty disaster such as a plane crash. The Royal Adelaide Hospital was also engineered to withstand major earthquakes and extreme weather events and could continue to operate for 48 hours if completely cut off from outside services such as water and power.

The emergency department also dealt each day with to some of the state’s most critically ill and injured adult patients. More than 75,000 patients came to the emergency department each year, including more than 1,800 major trauma cases and the many patients who arrived by ambulance. The emergency department was open 24 hours, seven days a week and a super site for major emergencies in South Australia, such as burns, heart attacks and strokes.