Infected wipes recalled from hospitals

CLEANING wipes have been recalled from Scots hospitals amid fears they are contaminated with a potentially deadly bug.

They were initially withdrawn from the £842million Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow – but have now been recalled by every health board in the country.

NHS bosses acted over worries that Clinitex wipes could be infected with pseudomonas, which is resistant to antibiotics. They refused to give further details, confirming only that all existing stocks had been ‘quarantined’ as further investigations take place.

An NHS National Services Scotland spokesman said: ‘A small batch of surface wipes supplied to NHS Scotland did not meet the required quality standards.

‘We have issued an immediate recall of the affected wipes to all health boards and quarantined all stocks of the affected product.’

The product is made by Manchester-based Techtex. A spokesman said: ‘A recent batch of Clinitex wipes was recalled after we received reports 14 individual packs and two buckets were showing signs of contamination.

‘Swift corrective action was taken to identify the source of the bacteria. The affected area of production has been identified, the contamination has been eliminated and we have resumed production.

‘This was an isolated incident and it was dealt with swiftly and transparently.’

Scottish Tory health spokesman Donald Cameron said: ‘We can’t afford to take risks with patient safety. Clearly, there will be a lot of very worried people in the wake of these revelations.’

Scottish Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: ‘Patient safety must take the highest priority and it’s right these products have been recalled. 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.’

Hugh Pennington, Emeritus Professor of Bacteriology at the University of Aberdeen, 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.’

In May, Techtex secured a £10million contract to be the sole supplier of wipes to the NHS in Scotland and Wales.