NSW government denies ‘covering up’ deadly fungal outbreak at major hospital | Health

The New South Wales health minister has denied “covering up” a deadly fungal outbreak at one of Australia’s largest hospitals, saying it was not publicised to avoid “unnecessarily scaring people”.

The cluster of infections caused by aspergillus, a common mould, killed two patients and left four others unwell in the Royal Prince Alfred (RPA) hospital’s transplant unit in late 2025.

The opposition accused the government of a “cover-up” after it publicly revealed the outbreak at the inner-Sydney hospital for the first time on Wednesday, after being forced to share documents under parliamentary order.

The health minister, Ryan Park, on Friday said NSW Health had prioritised informing patients and families of the outbreak.

“We wanted to strike a balance between not unnecessarily scaring people,” Park told reporters.

“There is in no way a sense of cover-up … we were telling hundreds of people.”

Patients in RPA’s transplant unit began battling infections from aspergillus in October. One patient died on 5 November and another on 19 November, with the aspergillus infection judged the most likely cause of death.

The hospital investigated issues itself, checking for connections between infected patients and installing additional air filters, then raised the alarm in December, the chief executive of the Sydney Local Health district (SLHD), Deb Willcox, told reporters.

On 24 December, the health minister’s office was notified and NSW Health convened a panel of experts chaired by the state’s chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, Park said.

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That panel guided the health response and encouraged the government to tell patients, families, visitors and staff, rather than the general public, Park said.

“I can see how people can look back and say, ‘well, you should have just told everybody’ – well, an expert panel said that this is what we should be doing in terms of information,” Park said.

Sarah Mitchell, the NSW shadow minister for health, on Friday said Chris Minns’s government should have disclosed the “shocking” revelations.

“The Minns Labor government has covered this up for the past three months,” Mitchell said in a statement.

“The staff, patients and families of those who lost their lives deserve transparency.”

Fungal spores are commonly found in soil, dust and damp environments but pose significant health risks for immunocompromised patients, such as those undergoing organ transplant procedures.

RPA has been undergoing a $940m redevelopment project since 2023 and the construction work is believed to have stirred up aspergillus, resulting in the six infections, Park said.

The hospital closed its transplant unit and moved its patients to another ward in December as the construction works paused, Willcox said. The unit was deep cleaned and its ceiling was resealed and air filters were cleaned, reopening on 9 February.

Chant said construction was a known risk factor in hospitals but air monitoring had not been routinely used, which she attributed to a gap in the guidelines on what to do when there were rising cases of fungal infections among transplant patients.

She said the department would issue new advice on managing rising cases of infections among transplant patients after an expert panel meeting next week.

A seventh patient also died of a fungal infection but a doctor had judged their death was not related to the outbreak, Chant said.

“Every year, RPA would have one or two cases of fungal infections in its patients,” she said.

“The difficulty is … finding the ones that were just unrelated to anything we could have controlled versus ones where we can actually take that action.”

The RPA cluster was included among a trove of documents revealing widespread mould concerns at NSW hospitals.

Park acknowledged mould would regularly arise across NSW Health buildings, adding that mould on hospital surfaces would not necessarily harm patients.

“There is mould that we try and get to as quickly as we can and rectify it, but that’s the facts when you’ve got over 4,000 odd buildings,” he said.