HOSPITALS WARNED IN DEADLY BUG ALERT
Health scare as NHS cleaning wipes are recalled
Fears cleaning wipes were contaminated with bacteria a Product withdrawn across country and ‘quarantined’ Bosses send ‘potential risk’ bulletin to NHS staff
CLEANING wipes have been recalled from Scots hospitals amid fears they are contaminated with a potentially deadly bug.
The clinical wipes are meant to keep operating theatres and emergency care units clean and sterile, but have been immediately banned.
The Sunday Post understands the urgent recall of Clinitex wipes is related to concerns the product could be infected with a potentially lethal bug called pseudomonas, which is antibiotic resistant.
The health scare is understood to have emerged at the flagship £ 842 million Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
However, the recall affects every health board in the country.
We asked health chiefs a string of questions about the product recall, including:
Was pseudomonas bacteria found on the wipes?
Exactly how many batches of wipes have been recalled?
Who first discovered the problem and when was it reported to the NHS?
But NHS bosses refused to be drawn on the basic details of the issue, only confirming existing stocks of the wipes across the entire NHS have now been “quarantined” as further urgent investigations get under way.
The product’s manufacturer, G re at e r Ma nc h e s t e r- b as e d Techtex, which has a £3m deal to supply more than 100 million wipes a year to the NHS, has been asked to carry out urgent tests to pinpoint the cause.
Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Donald Cameron last night described the health alert as extremely alarming for patients and staff.
He praised the swift action of health chiefs but added:“We can’t afford to take risks with patient safety, and clearly there will be a lot of very worried people in the wake of these revelations.”
Scottish Labour’s health spokesman Anas Sarwar MSP echoed his concerns about the recall.
“Patient safety must take the highest priority and it’s right that these products have now been recalled,” he said. “The next step is to find out how this happened, to monitor closely for any impact on patients and to ensure that, if there was any infection risk, this does not happen again.”
The bacterium appears to have an in-built resistance to antibiotics, as well as the ability to mutate into new, even more resistant forms, and can kill weak and vulnerable people.
Public Health England was forced to issue an urgent warning recently after nearly 30 people were linked to an outbreak. The health scare centred on a spray used on people getting piercings.
And last month the deaths of two babies at a US hospital were linked to pseudomonas.
Experts say pseudomonas aeruginosa is found widely in soil and stagnant water, and can infect humans and plants.
It doesn’t usually result in illness in healthy people but causes serious infection when our normal defences are weakened.
That means vulnerable patients in hospital are most at threat.
The severity and type of illness it causes depends on its route into the body.
If it enters lung tissue it can cause a form of pneumonia.
Infection of a skin wound or burn can lead to extensive tissue damage or even septic shock.
The Scottish recall has alarmed leading microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington, who said: “If the wipes have pseudomonas on them, clearly it is bad news. It shouldn’t be there, it’s as simple as that.
“There is real potential for risk to patients.
“The whole point of using them is to clean your hands and get rid of bugs.”
The contracting body which awarded the wipes contract, NHS National Services Scotland, moved quickly to address the problem.
A spokesman said: “It has been brought to our attention that a small batch of surface wipes supplied to NHS Scotland did not meet the re qu i re d quality standards.
“We instructed the supplier to formally test batches of the product and similar issues have been found in other batches.
“We have issued an immediate recall of the affected wipes to all Health Boards and quarantined all stock of the affected product.
“Alternative supplies of detergent wipes have been sourced from a different supplier, and are being despatched to all boards as a priority.”
Public health body Health Protection Scotland confirmed that a potential risk alert had been circulated to staff around the country.
A spokesman said the step had been taken as “a precautionary measure”.
He added: “Following investigation and testing, one of our suppliers has issued a product recall for certain batches of surface wipes.
“These wipes are never used directly on patients.
“HPS is working closely with colleagues in NSS National Logistics to ensure that all staff that need to be are aware of this issue and the recall.
“We are working to discover if any wipes in the recalled batches were used and if there is any subsequent risk. We are not aware of any infection caused through the use of these recalled wipes.”
Professor Pennington said serious questions needed to be answered.
“It’s very unlikely that the bacteria would have got into open packs. The first line of inquiry will be to ask what happened in the manufacturing process,” he added.
“As soon as you find a problem like this you have to withdraw the whole affected batch of products and then ask what’s gone wrong after.”
The Sunday Post called at the home of one of the directors behind the wipe manufacturing company yesterday but no comment was forthcoming.
In Ma y this yea r it was announced Techtex had secured a £10 million contract to be the sole supplier of the cleansing wipes to the NHS in Scotland and Wales. It is not known if contaminated wipes have been found in Wales.