31.03.15
Clinical waste found in laundry at East Kent trust
Clinical waste has been found mixed in with dirty linen 40 times in three months at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, in a massive breach of hygiene standards that poses a risk to both patients and laundry staff.
The trust said it shared the figure with staff in an effort to improve standards, adding that 1.625m items were sent to laundry in the three months and the ‘error’ rating was 0.0027%.
Sue Roberts, director of infection prevention and control, said: "As part of our value of being open and transparent, we recently alerted staff to the mishandling of clinical waste, which we take very seriously.
"We did this to ensure that clinical waste is disposed of correctly.
"Our own laundry processes 6.5 million items a year and has very strict procedures to ensure that any clinical waste mistakenly sent to laundry is not included in clean linen sent back to wards."
One patient, Vicki Adams of Canterbury, said that she found a soiled wound dressing, covered in either faeces or blood, among her bedsheets while staying at the trust’s Kent and Canterbury Hospital.
"It was revolting to see that. It made me feel sick and shocked," she said.
Adams also experienced other examples of poor care during her stay. She told Kent Online that nurses failed to fix a dislodged catheter tube – leaving her soaked in urine for four hours. She also claims staff ignored her call bell, forcing her to crawl 10 metres to the toilet.
This is just the latest issue for the troubled trust. Earlier in March it was revealed that more than 40% of staff at the trust were victims of harassment or bullying by colleagues. The figures came to light in the annual NHS staff survey, which showed 42% of employees at the trust said they were targeted in 2014.
In September last year NHE reported that Monitor put the trust into special measures due to serious failures in safety and leadership.
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