A baby was lucky to escape injury after a wooden panel dropped from a wall onto a cot in the new Centenary Hospital for Women and Children.
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Staff have raised safety concerns about the new hospital after the accident on Wednesday night and several other incidents.
They included a communications failure which resulted in neonatal staff failing to receive an urgent ''code blue'' call for assistance with a critically ill baby in an operating theatre.
The ACT Health Directorate confirmed yesterday that several wooden panels fell off a bedhead in an antenatal patient room, with one striking the edge of a cot.
The Health Directorate was unable to confirm claims that a woman in another room was struck by a falling panel yesterday.
Staff speaking on the condition of anonymity also said a heavy joinery bulkhead had dropped slightly from a ceiling in a tea room.
Several staff also said they had concerns about bed shortages that were leading to the cancellation of elective surgery. One staff member said the hospital had the potential to be viewed as a ''white elephant'' but they were unsure if either side of politics could improve things. Beds in the hospital were yesterday moved away from the bedheads before crews removed panels from 72 rooms.
A Health Directorate spokesman said the tearoom bulkhead moved 15 millimetres from the ceiling line and had been repaired by the hospital's builders as part of the 12-month defect liability period.
The hospital was also liaising with the builders in relation to the wooden panels. The code blue incident had occurred because of misunderstanding by some staff about a new communications system being used in the Women and Children's hospital.
Opposition health spokesman Jeremy Hanson last night said it appeared the Centenary Hospital had been opened before it was ready. ''This is as bad as it gets. that a new facility costing the taxpayer $110 million it appears have been rushed to be opened before the election and patient safety may have been compromised,'' Mr Hanson said.
Chief Minister and Health Minister Katy Gallagher said the falling panel incident was very serious. Safety checks had been carried out before the hospital was opened and swift action was taken when problems occurred.
