Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Surgeries delayed in Fife and Tayside after sterilising hub damage

Over 50 surgeries have been delayed due to the issue.

Ninewells Hospital. Image: Kim Cessford/DC Thomson
Ninewells Hospital. Image: Kim Cessford/DC Thomson

Over 50 surgeries in Fife and Tayside have been delayed following damage to a sterilising hub.

NHS Tayside confirmed damage to the ceiling of the central decontamination unit at Ninewells Hospital has led to the delays.

NHS Fife confirmed 13 elective procedures have been cancelled with the BBC reporting a further 43 NHS Tayside surgeries have also been delayed.

The sterilisation hub provides theatre trays to hospitals across the two health boards.

Over 50 surgeries have been delayed due to the issue. Image: Kris Miller

Surgical trays have been sent to other health boards to be sterilised after the hub was damaged at the weekend.

NHS Fife confirmed contingency plans are in place for Wednesday – claiming disruption will be minimised.

A spokesperson for NHS Tayside said: “A ceiling in the clean room of the central decontamination unit was accidentally damaged during a repair resulting in a step-down in production at the specialist facility since the weekend.

“All emergency surgery has been maintained to date however some elective surgical procedures have had to be postponed on Monday and Tuesday and we expect a small number of procedures to be postponed on Wednesday.”

NHS Fife chief apologises for delays

Claire Dobson, NHS Fife’s director of acute services said: “We apologise to the small number of patients currently affected, the decision to postpone any operation is never an easy one and we will work to ensure that these appointments are rescheduled as soon as possible.

“Unfortunately, today’s decision was essential, in order to ensure sufficient clean surgical supplies were available for those with the most urgent clinical need, including medical emergencies and cancer treatments.

“We continue to work with colleagues at NHS Tayside to minimise the impact on our elective procedure programme and ask patients to continue to attend for their scheduled appointment unless they have been contacted by their clinical team.”

Conversation