Southern's dirty secret

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Southern's dirty secret

Glasgow Evening Times - Glasgow,Scotland,UK

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5051805.html

THESE shocking pictures reveal the appalling conditions at one of

Glasgow's biggest hospitals.

And a leading doctor today warned the state of the Southern General

was putting patients at risk.

Dr Mc, a consultant anaesthetist, said management had

repeatedly failed to heed warnings from frontline staff that the

hospital desperately needs better facilities and more beds.

The 56-year-old said these photographs were submitted to management

last year in the hope they would fix the crumbling operating theatre

suite where casualty doctors fight to save the lives of critically-

ill patients.

Staff have decided to break their silence after continuing to

struggle with unhygienic conditions. He said they had been fobbed

off with the promise of

a new hospital in six years.

Dr Mc said: " The conditions are so bad a bacteriologist uses

the pictures to lecture students. "

Damage includes:

•A hole in the floor leading to the general operating theatre on the

accident and emergency unit's first floor. Various patch-up works

failed and large cracks spread across the recovery area outside the

theatre.

•Rough cement has been dumped on floors that should have a smooth

surface so they can be polished to stop germs.

•Some windows in the operating theatre rooms appear to be infested

with mould.

•Most worryingly, there are concerns that holes and cracks in the

operating theatre floor could harbour bacteria, including the

superbug MRSA, which can pass on to dust and lead to wound

infections.

•Large slabs on the floor have cracked up, leaving gaps that run for

several feet along the floor. A repair has been tried, but the

filling material has fallen out, leaving ragged concrete beneath.

Dr Mc said: " I can't understand how it is possible to clean

that properly.

" We are facing that in what should be a 21st century hospital. "

, who represents Glasgow operating theatre staff with

the union Unison, said the Southern theatre should have been

immediately closed because it presented a threat to patients.

She said: " It is disgraceful.

" Any crack in an operating theatre floor should be filled

immediately because it can harbour infection and pose a real

infection risk. The theatre should have been closed immediately

until the work was done.

" It should have been refloored long ago. Why did the management's

health and safety officers not act before it got to this state? "

Dr Mc, who has worked in the NHS for 22 years, fears he will

not see an improvement before he retires in seven years.

This week, it emerged one of his consultant colleagues, Dr Magnus

Garrioch, had left to take a new job in England because he was tired

of waiting for a new hospital serving the whole south side of the

city.

Dr Mc warned that years of penny-pinching meant operations

were being delayed because ageing lifts break down repeatedly.

He said a £60,000 intensive care bed for life support had lain empty

for three years because the health board would not provide the

£300,000 a year needed to staff it. Crisis patients were sometimes

put in the bed without enough staff to monitor them

In March 2005, staff told managers there were also not enough beds

in the high dependency unit. These beds are needed by patients not

stable enough after surgery to return to a ward.

When NHS inspectors carried out routine checks six months later,

they found the acute shortage was still a problem.

Dr Mc said: " There is clearly a risk to patients. My

colleagues are having to make the same decision daily: Is there a

greater risk from postponing an operation or from carrying it out

and returning a patient to a ward before they are ready? "

A spokesman for the health board, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde,

said: " This is one of the hospital's older theatres and one of only

a few on the site that has not been replaced or undergone

refurbishment in recent years.

" The fabric of the theatre does reflect its age, but does not

compromise its continued use for operations. As such, it remains

fully utilised by the surgical teams in the hospital.

" In the longer term the theatre will be replaced as part of the

major development of the South Glasgow Hospital. "

Publication date 05/05/06