Was the Garran Surge Centre ever meant to be a COVID-19 ward? Health minister Rachel Stephen-Smith says not, and has accused the opposition of “really disturbing revisionist thinking”, after her shadow counterpart, Leanne Castley, insisted that Ms Stephen-Smith must reveal when she found out about a 2021 report that the centre was unsuitable to treat COVID-19 patients, and why she had not fixed the issues raised to make it a ward.

“[Ms Stephen-Smith] must come clean on what she knew about deficiencies at the centre, when she knew about them, and why she didn’t rectify them,” Ms Castley said.

The Garran Surge Centre was constructed in May 2020 to be a temporary field hospital should COVID-19 numbers increase. It was used for vaccination and testing from 2021, and as a walk-in clinic for COVID-19 patients last year. The centre closed last week.

In October 2021, according to today’s Canberra Times, a report stated: “The facility is generally not suitable for treatment of COVID-19 infected patients as it is”. The report and a peer review of the centre design found issues with fire safety, appropriate distancing of beds, and ventilation. The centre, based on guidelines for developing countries, did not meet national or WHO standards, the Canberra Liberals observed.

The report argued that the centre was not usable as a ward; unless certain improvements (such as upgrading exhaust and air filtration systems) were made, it could only be used for triage, administration, and public waiting, not for long-term bed occupation or intensive care. The improvements in question would cost between $60,000 and $75,000, and take four to six weeks. Canberra Health Services did not make those changes.

Ms Stephen-Smith insisted that the surge centre was built to supplement emergency department capability, and was “never intended” to be a ward or intensive care unit.

“To suggest that something went wrong because the design wasn’t appropriate for a ward or an intensive care unit is absolutely ridiculous,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.

But is that what the public thought? Not according to the opposition.

“All Canberrans expected that the surge centre was supposed to handle patients overnight, to keep them out of the ED [Emergency Department],” Ms Castley said.

“We trusted that there was this centre for Canberrans to go to when there was a surge in COVID …

“Now they’re telling us it wasn’t built for that. So what was it for, and why are they changing their mind?”

Ms Castley said that Ms Stephen-Smith should have been aware of the deficiencies, and recommended the upgrades before the Omicron and winter 2022 COVID spike. Not doing so “shows a blatant disregard for patient and staff welfare”, Ms Castley thought.

The centre, Ms Stephen-Smith noted, was built in April 2020, when many thought the virus was spread by droplets.

“It was built very quickly to respond to a circumstance where around the world we were seeing thousands and thousands of people dying and emergency departments being overwhelmed. To then go back in some kind of revisionist way and say: ‘Well, when it was built in 37 days, in April 2020, we should have taken notice of some standards that were subsequently implemented somewhere else down the line, when we knew that COVID was airborne’, is absolutely ridiculous.”

Ms Stephen-Smith said she understood the 2021 report assessed whether the centre could be used for ongoing treatment for COVID-19 patients (which, she reiterated, was never the original intention when the surge centre was constructed).

“Clearly, there was a decision made that it wasn’t worth taking that step,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.

Since the surge centre was already being used, another location would have to be found for services delivered there.

“I’m quite comfortable with the fact that they didn’t bother to tell me that it would have cost X dollars to do something they didn’t want to do in the first place,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.

However, Canberra Health Services and the government did discuss whether the surge centre should be used for its intended purpose, or as a COVID-19 emergency department, the minister said. At the time, many staff either had COVID-19 or another respiratory illness, or were in quarantine; trying to spread staffing resources over three emergency departments might have made matters more difficult, she explained.

If government had intended to use the centre as an emergency department, Ms Stephen-Smith said, further work would have been done to ensure it could operate safely and effectively.

Ms Castley also accused Ms Stephen-Smith of obscurity. Last year, she had asked the government why the centre was not being used to treat emergency patients, as announced in April 2020, and was told this was due to a lack of health workers.

“Now we find out that it seems it might have been to do with the surge centre itself,” Ms Castley said.

“It is completely unacceptable this government has been so non-transparent during a public health emergency.”

Ms Stephen-Smith said the opposition did not understand how the whole health system worked, or what would have to be done with activity already conducted in the surge centre. The Liberals, she said, had been wrong when they asked last year why the centre was not an emergency department.

“They never made a good argument,” Ms Stephen-Smith said. “Now people are again revisiting that as if they had something sensible to say, which they never did.”

The minister stood by the government decision to build the facility to supplement emergency departments. It was, she said, “absolutely clear” to Canberrans that setting it up as a potential expansion was “overwhelmingly” the right decision.

“It has served us very well throughout the pandemic.”

• Inside the ACT’s $14 million surge centre we hope remains unused (22 May 2020)
• First Canberrans are vaccinated against COVID-19 (22 February 2021)
• Vaccine bookings re-open for surge centre (12 April 2021)
• Garran walk-in clinic opens for COVID patients (11 January 2022)
• Changes to COVID testing requirements next week, surge centre shuts (23 February)