THE NINE PAGES OF CONDEMNATION
The nine-page report prepared by Health and Safety Executive investigators could not have been clearer or more damning.
The report and covering letter sent to Jane Grant, chief executive of Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board, on November 23 last year exposes a litany of serious failures in how staff were equipped and trained to deal with the most infectious diseases.
The health board did not have an official policy for the handling of deadly viral fevers.
Only two out of
12 specialist staff treating patients with highly infectious viral haemorrhagic fevers had the fitting of their face mask properly tested, as required by regulations.
One member of staff treated a patient with a viral haemorrhagic fever after just one hour’s training.
Staff treating such patients were told to remove protective equipment before leaving the patient’s room – a direct breach of national infection control guidelines.
There were no records of the training staff had received for dealing with some of the riskiest infections.
Staff not immunised for tuberculosis (TB) were working in high-risk infection areas, and had not been advised of potential dangers.
Staff who had shown TB symptoms were left to wait for an appointment for further monitoring.
And four staff from one ward who had multiple TB symptoms had not been referred for any further monitoring.
Only four out of 27 medical staff working on wards that treat patients with TB had the fitting of their face mask properly tested.
Six of the 27 medical staff actually failed the face mask fit test. Only two of 41 nurses working on one of those wards had passed the face mask fit test.
Staff were unaware that, under national regulations, if they failed the face mask fit test they should not be exposed to respiratory hazards such as working with patients with airborne TB.
This letter explains what was wrong, why it was wrong and what you need to do to put things right...It is important that you deal with these matters to protect people’s heath and safety