NSW government denies ‘covering up’ deadly fungal outbreak at major hospital | Health
The New South Wales health minister has denied a “cover-up” of a deadly fungal outbreak at one of Australia’s largest hospitals, saying it was not made public to avoid “unnecessarily scaring people”.
A cluster of infections caused by aspergillus, a common mold, killed two patients and sickened four others in the transplant unit of the Royal Prince Alfred (RPA) hospital in late 2025.
The opposition accused the government of a “cover-up” after it first publicly disclosed the outbreak at a Sydney hospital on Wednesday after being forced to share documents by order of parliament.
Health minister Ryan Park said on Friday that NSW Health was prioritizing keeping patients and families informed about the outbreak.
“We wanted to strike a balance between not scaring people unnecessarily,” Park told reporters.
“There’s no sense of cover-up whatsoever… We were telling hundreds of people.”
Patients in RPA’s transplant unit began fighting aspergillus infections in October. One patient died on November 5 and another on November 19; aspergillus infection was considered the most likely cause of death.
Sydney Local Health District (SLHD) chief executive Deb Willcox told reporters the hospital personally investigated the problems, checked for connections between infected patients and installed additional air filters, then raised the alarm in December.
Park said the health minister’s office was notified on December 24 and NSW Health contacted the state’s chief medical officer, Dr. He said he convened a panel of experts chaired by Kerry Chant.
Sign up: AÜ Breaking News email
Park said this panel guides the health response and encourages the government to release information to patients, families, visitors and staff rather than the public.
“I can see people looking back and saying ‘you should have told everyone’; a panel of experts said that’s what we should have done from an information standpoint,” Park said.
NSW shadow minister for health Sarah Mitchell said on Friday Chris Minns’ government should explain the “shocking” revelations.
“The Minn. Labor government has covered this up for the last three months,” Mitchell said in a statement.
“Staff, patients and families of those who lost their lives deserve transparency.”
Fungal spores are commonly found in soil, dust, and moist environments but pose significant health risks to patients with weakened immune systems, such as those undergoing organ transplant procedures.
RPA is pursuing a $940 million redevelopment project since 2023, and construction work is believed to have activated aspergillus, leading to six infections, Park said.
Willcox said the hospital closed its transplant unit and moved its patients to another ward in December due to a construction halt. The unit was deep cleaned, re-roofed, and the air filters were cleaned and reopened on February 9th.
Construction is a known risk factor in hospitals, but air monitoring is not routinely used, Chant said, which he attributed to a gap in guidelines on what to do when cases of fungal infections increase among transplant patients.
He said the ministry would issue new recommendations on managing rising cases of infection among organ transplant patients after an expert panel meeting next week.
Chant said a seventh patient also died of a fungal infection, but the doctor ruled those deaths were not related to the outbreak.
“Every year there would be one or two cases of fungal infection in patients with RPA,” he said.
“The challenge is…finding the ones that have nothing to do with anything we can control, versus finding the ones where we can actually take that action.”
The RPA cluster was among a series of documents revealing widespread mold concerns in NSW hospitals.
Park acknowledged mold appeared regularly in NSW Health buildings, adding that mold on hospital surfaces would not necessarily harm patients.
“There are patterns that we’re trying to eliminate as quickly as we can, but that’s the reality when you have over 4,000 buildings,” he said.
