Serious concerns have been raised about the cleanliness of Fife’s major A&E department.
The Healthcare Environment Inspectorate carried out unannounced visits to Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital on December 2.
Such were inspectors’ concerns they returned the following day and again a week later.
They assessed A&E, intensive care, the maternity inpatient unit and four wards care of the elderly, haematology and a medical and surgical ward.
Overall, the standards varied when it came to protecting patients, staff and visitors from the risk of picking up an infection.
It did say in the majority of wards and units inspected the standard of environmental cleanliness was good with the exception of A&E and ward 5, the care of the elderly ward.
In these areas and in the ICU there was significant levels of dust.
Concerns were raised about how clean the equipment was in the majority of places inspected.
In A&E, trolley frames were contaminated with blood and/or bodily fluids.
Chairs, blood gas analysers and bed frames were contaminated in A&E, the maternity inpatient ward and ward 15.
All ward 15’s sharps trays were contaminated with blood.
In the ICU, inspectors saw intravenous pumps, syringe drivers and feed pumps visibly contaminated with blood, medication, dust and enteral feed.
They also found a significant number of contaminated mattresses from beds and babies’ cots.
Inspectors found some staff were not following the proper procedures for hand washing and there were issues with clinical hand wash basins in ward 15.
In the last visit they did find improvements in the ICU and maternity inpatient unit.
While there were some improvements in ward 15, inspectors “remained concerned” about the cleanliness of equipment.
They added: “We found little improvement in the A&E department.”
Susan Brimelow, chief inspector of the inspectorate, set up to help reduce the infection risk to patients, said she was “extremely disappointed” and had passed her concerns to the Scottish Government.
She said: “During our inspection on December 2-3, we found patient equipment which was not clean and a poor standard of environmental cleanliness.
“We also found staff did not always wash their hands at appropriate times.
“We put our concerns to senior management and requested that immediate action be taken to minimise the risk of infection.
“On December 11, we returned unannounced to ensure improvements had been made and to assess progress.
“Although we saw some areas of improvement, issues with the cleanliness of patient equipment and the environment remained in particular the A&E department and ward 15.
“Due to the serious nature of our findings, I passed my concerns to the Scottish Government.”
HEI has identified seven requirements and two recommendations for NHS Fife, including ensuring all patient equipment is clean and all staff decontaminate their hands properly.
REPORT ‘EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING’
NHS Fife board chairman Allan Burns said the report was “extremely disappointing” when the NHS was constantly striving to raise the standard of care it provides.
Meanwhile, the interim chief executive, Dr Brian Montgomery, stressed: “NHS Fife is fully committed to providing a clean, safe environment.
“I am very disappointed that the report has highlighted a number of areas where NHS Fife has fallen short of the required standards.
“While there has been some progress in relation to areas for improvement highlighted in previous reports, there is still work to be done to raise standards to a consistent level in all areas of the Victoria Hospital.
“I would reassure our patients that urgent action has already been taken to address the issues raised by the inspection report.”
This included the revision and enhancement of cleaning schedules, with additional monitoring at both ward and hospital management level to ensure high standards of cleanliness are met in all wards and departments.
Mr Burns added: “People served by the board have my assurance that everything will be done to address the concerns highlighted in the report and to attain the standards required.”