BLOOD, dust and faecal contamination were found on equipment at a leading hospital by inspectors.
Their report said blood was found on items including a glucometer for measuring blood sugar.
Faecal contamination was found on toilet equipment such as commodes and raised toilet seats at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.
They also found "significant levels" of dust on ledges in the special care baby unit, and on two bed frames in the intensive care unit.
The Healthcare Environment Inspectorate (HEI) has detailed nine requirements which NHS Tayside must address as a matter of priority in its report on the unannounced inspection made on March 11-12 this year.
They cover areas from cleanliness to staff dress and breast-milk storage.
Inspectors found there was "poor compliance" with procedures for managing sharp objects such as needles, with bins for them contaminated with blood on the outside. Two were overfilled and the HEI said NHS Tayside must address the problem to cut the risk of injury and infection to patients, staff and visitors.
The frequency of cleaning of the neonatal intensive care unit did not meet national requirements, which the health board has been told to address.
Susan Brimelow, HEI chief inspector, said patients commented positively on the standard of cleanliness on their wards, but added: "This inspection resulted in nine requirements which NHS Tayside must address as a matter of priority."
The inspection team noted not all staff complied with the NHS Scotland dress code.
Six were seen wearing operating theatre clothing in the main concourse area of the hospital. Two doctors with long sleeves were seen in the acute medical unit, and a doctor had untied hair.
NHS Tayside has produced an action plan detailing how it is addressing the nine requirements.
Its chief executive, Lesley McLay said: "We have already addressed the majority of the requirements which have been identified by HEI. The remainder of the issues raised are being actively progressed through our robust action plan, which clearly demonstrates our commitment to further improving our services.
"Our front-line staff work hard every day to ensure person-centred, safe and effective care for all our patients and their families. Clearly, some of the observations noted by the inspectors on the day are disappointing and therefore we are reinforcing policies with staff and providing additional training where necessary."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article