Hundreds of boxes of drugs were left unattended in an unlocked cabinet at a Fife hospital, a young patient has revealed.
Kirsty Donaldson (16) was left alone in a Glenrothes Hospital consulting room for ten minutes last Saturday.
The school girl from Leven, who wants to study midwifery, said a cabinet containing enough drugs to ”kill someone” was wide open and there was a set of keys in the lock. A box of discarded needles was also sitting on a desk under an open window in the room.
Kirsty said: ”It was a huge, big cabinet, full of drugs. Hundreds of boxes. I went over to have a look. There was stuff for every part of the body. The amount of drugs in there could kill someone, easily. Someone could have taken them and overdosed. Or what if a child had got hold of some?”
Kirsty’s mother Robbie, who was with her at the hospital, said: ”The young attending doctor had to leave the office to do a test for her. There was a yellow plastic container for sharps disposal sitting on the desk but it was open. This was sitting right underneath an open window.
”The drugs cabinet, which was in a corner behind us, was wide open with the key in the lock; there were at least four other keys on the keyring. There were packages of drugs in the cabinet that are available over the counter as well as drugs that are available by prescription only. There were hundreds of boxes and foils of pills in there, all unsecured.
”If someone else with less scruples and good moral standing had been left in that room alone, a good portion of those drugs could have vanished. And then what? The possibilities are horrific.”
Mrs Donaldson immediately alerted staff to the dangers and she was left ”appalled” by their response.
”Rather than go to the room and immediately secure the cabinet, she flustered about and told me I would have to write in about this incident. I thought she would have dealt with it and apologised but she didn’t seem in the least bit concerned. I was appalled.”
Mrs Donaldson wrote a letter of complaint on the same day, which also flagged up her concerns about the condition of the ”run down” hospital.
She wrote: ”While the doctor was out, we saw the furniture was well-used, tatty even. The carpet was worn and had dark stains from something dropping on it. There was a large vertical crack running the entire height of the wall on the corridor side. The state of the room made us not want to touch anything in it.”
Kirsty added: ”I’m never going there again. It’s horrible.”
NHS Fife has launched a probe into the concerns raised.
Susan Manion, a general manager for NHS Fife, said: ”NHS Fife does not comment on individual patient complaints. However, we can confirm that a letter was received and we are currently investigating the issues raised.”