Patients face delays amid fears over surgery safety

News Reporter

Wednesday 13 March 2013

PATIENTS whose operations were delayed after surgeons raised fears about dirty and damaged surgical tools could be waiting weeks before their procedures go ahead.

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Helen McArdle

The Herald revealed yesterday that patients due to undergo treatment including hip and knee replacements at the orthopaedics unit in Gartnavel General Hospital in Glasgow last month had operations postponed.

The delay came after concerns were raised over the safety of surgical tools coming from the health board's centralised decontamination facility.

The health board said 200 patients were affected. The Cowlairs unit sterilises and supplies surgical instruments for all Glasgow hospitals, but doctors objected to going ahead with operations after tools turned up broken or potentially unhygienic as protective wrappers were torn. The equipment shortage meant some orthopaedic surgeons were unable to operate for a week. Orthopaedic surgery at Gartnavel has now resumed on a phased basis and is expected to return to normal next week. A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) said it had contacted all patients affected to apologise and set new dates. However, many are still waiting to find out when their procedures will go ahead. The decontamination unit – one of the UK's biggest – was set up in 2005 as a result of the merger of services previously provided by smaller units. The move was designed to bring NHSGGC into line with new technical and quality standards recommended by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.But doctors have complained about poor turnaround times for sterilising devices and the substandard condition of items returning to theatre. One doctor said: "The Cowlairs problem is one of staggering managerial incompetence. "We expected teething problems but you don't expect to have them years later. "There have been staffing problems; retention of staff is a big issue. Another issue is they have difficulty training staff as many are immigrants for whom English is not their first language."Cowlairs accepts little responsibility for the equipment they handle. If they damage it they are not really accountable for paying for the replacement or repair. Many of the branches of surgery can't afford to get their expensive equipment repaired."However, Matt McLaughlin, the regional organiser for Unison, which represents health workers in Glasgow, said staff at the unit were struggling with a "pressure cooker" environment.Mr McLaughlin said: "It's a high-pressure environment made worse by the pressure on NHSGGC to get operations done quickly. "Some of the equipment is in constant use and the pressure to turn around the equipment at very short notice is incredible. "The vast majority of kit is provided free from contaminants and our members are working round the clock to keep up their end of the system."A spokeswoman for NHSGGC said: "Cowlairs decontamination unit sterilises 12 million items of equipment every year and from time to time there will be isolated instances of damaged or incomplete packs being delivered to our theatre suites. "These stringent checks do not stop at the doors of the unit but continue right through to the surgical teams in theatre. We have seen a pattern develop at Gartnavel where a higher number of reports of damaged trays have been received from the orthopaedic teams. "We are not seeing this pattern at any other of our sites." l Liberton Hospital in Edinburgh, closed to visitors since February 19 in an effort to contain a norovirus outbreak, has reopened all nine wards after NHS Lothian said the measure contributed to preventing the virus's further spread.

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Patients face delays amid fears over surgery safety

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