NHS apologise over A&E room
Patient called the oversight‘negligence’
A patient has spoken of her shock af t er being admitted to an A&E room at Hairmyres Hospital that had a used sick bowl in it and a blood covered floor.
A health professional herself, she said the failures amount to nothing short of negligence, telling the News she had to flag up the disgusting state of the room to nursing staff.
Now NHS Lanarkshire have apologised for the incident.
A friend of the patient, who wishes not to be named, told us : “The room just clearly hadn’t been cleaned down.
“The mater i a l s used t o t re at t he patient prior hadn’t been disposed of properly and my friend was asked to sit down right next to the sick bowl.
“She had to bring it to the attention of the nurse who cleaned it down, but didn’t really give any acknowledgement about the severity of the issue.
“We a l l a ppreci at e t he work our health care professionals do, and we know that these are particularly tough times, but this was just negligence.”
At any time, rooms at hospitals should be thoroughly cleaned and cleared between use, but even more so because of the current coronavirus pandemic.
Pictures taken by the patient show a soiled sick bowl with face mask in it, as well as blood on the floor.
Our source added: “This is unacceptable at anytime, but particularly just now.
“Giving how i mportant i nfection control is, this is just negligence. What I would say though, is this is not reflective of all NHS premises or work.
“I find this singular incident immensely concerning and, unfortunately, it can’t go unacknowledged.”
Deputy director of hospital services, CJ Graham, s ai d s t af f “make ever y effort” to ensure patients are protected from any type of risk at Hairmyres.
He added: “We exercise due diligence ensur i ng al l appropriate i nfection, prevention and control measures are in place.
“We regret any instance where we have f a i l e d t o prov i de t he hi g hes t standard of care and we have monitoring systems in place to help us understand compliance with control measures and ensure any areas for improvement are highlighted.
“We have a formal complaints process and we would always encourage anyone to contact us in this way if they wish to raise any concerns to allow them to be fully investigated.”