Nurses who lost their uniforms in the fire at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, last year, could wait 10 months for replacements.
Health bosses were told the national procurement agency, which oversees health service purchasing across Scotland, estimated it would be June or July before replacements would be available for Tayside.
Now health bosses want Tayside to “jump the queue” and get their order ahead of other health boards, given the special circumstances in Ninewells.
An order was placed in the aftermath of September’s fire in the nurses’ changing rooms, which destroyed 12,000 nurses’ uniforms.
Since the fire nurses who lost their uniforms have been wearing scrubs, which are not designed for regular wear outside theatres and are not long-term substitutes for the regular two-piece tunics.
However, every health board in the country is replacing nurses’ uniforms with colour-coded tunics and tops, putting pressure on procurement.Lengthy waitAt yesterday’s meeting of the NHS Tayside delivery unit committee in King’s Cross Hospital, Dundee, Ninewells site manager Brian Main revealed there would be a lengthy wait for replacements.
Gerry Marr, NHS Tayside deputy chief executive, asked, “Are you not bringing any pressure to bear on national procurement? With respect to other health boards, they didn’t lose thousands of uniforms in a fire.”
Following the meeting Mr Main said Mr Marr was making the case for Tayside to “jump the queue” ahead of other boards.
“What we lost in the fire were the old uniforms,” said Mr Main. “What we are wanting to buy is the new uniforms. We can’t go out and buy more of the old ones.
“There is now a national two-piece uniform for nurses, and that is what we have got to buy. It is being rolled out across Scotland and every other board in the country is ordering trousers and tunics.
“I have been told it will be June or July before we can anticipate having new ones and nurses who lost uniforms will have to continue wearing the blue scrubs we purchased as a temporary replacement meantime.
“What I am now being asked to do is see if we can jump the queue.”