Ten months ago, health officials said Canberra Hospital's electrical systems were an "extreme and high risk" and said it was going to tender to fix them.
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It is unclear whether anything has happened since, but this week 60 patients were evacuated and surgeries were cancelled after a fire at the hospital's electrical switchroom on Wednesday night.
Health directorate deputy director-general Shaun Strachan told parliamentary estimates hearings in June last year that consultant AECOM had done a risk assessment of the hospital infrastructure as part of the government's upgrades to keep the hospital operating for the next five to 10 years.
The "extreme and the high risk" issues "largely relate to the electrical systems and the main switchboard of the hospital", he said then.
"That is currently going through a request for tender process at the moment.
"As you will appreciate, in order to allow the assets to perform, there is a requirement over the next five to seven years to ensure that we are absolutely confident that at the end of the day the infrastructure is there to support the front-line clinical services."
ACT health authorities would not answer questions on Friday about whether the tender had been let, or whether any work had been done since.
On March 17 this year, a $322,000 contract was let for "building 12 electrical main switchboard emergency works", but the health directorate would not say whether there was any relationship between that work and the electrical switchroom fault that caused the fire.
Liberal health spokeswoman Vicki Dunne slammed the inaction.
"They have to come clean and say is the problem that they identified at least as recently as June last year the problem that caused the fire yesterday, and if it was why wasn't it fixed earlier?" she said.
Mrs Dunne said it was lucky the failure had not hit critical areas of the hospital such as neo-natal intensive care and intensive care.
The timing, too, was lucky, she said.
"They were very lucky this [failure] happened at 5.30pm on Wednesday and not at 3.20pm when they would have seven or eight operating theatres in full mode," she said. "They can't rely on the generators when the switchboard doesn't work. When the switchboard isn't working it doesn't matter how many generators you have going you can't get the power through."
On Thursday, outpatient clinics and elective surgeries were cancelled, the emergency department was restricted to major trauma, and other emergencies were sent to Calvary Hospital.
Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris said the hospital returned to business as usual on Thursday evening and with the exception of two public lifts was working at full capacity on Friday.
Elective surgery and outpatient services were reinstated on Friday morning. Patients whose appointments were postponed on Thursday had been contacted to make new arrangements.
An investigation was underway as a priority, she said.
Last year, the ACT branch of the Australian Medical Association warned the hospital was at breaking point.
"There's a very rapidly closing window of opportunity, Professor Stephen Robson said, welcoming a Liberal election promise to build a new hospital. "The current facilities are only just holding and if you delay this sort of infrastructure any longer it may well mean the wheels will come off the cart and the hospital won't cope."
In the lead-up to the election, Labor promised an expansion to the women's and children's hospital and a new emergency department, with a new building to follow in about five years.
A spokesman for Calvary Hospital said Thursday had been busy, with 100 patients at the emergency department by lunchtime. More serious cases than usual had also presented and wait times had been longer as a result. Friday was back to normal, he said.
