Appalling infection rate at Derriford Hospital condemned by Totnes Lib Dem, Mike Treleaven.

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 29th Oct 2003

Today's revelations that three operating theatres at Derriford were to be subject to special cleaning after a high rate of infections was condemned as appalling by Totnes Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson, Mike Treleaven. Commenting on the reports he said:

' Infection rates of around 5% in orthopaedics are completely unacceptable and 5 times the accepted norm of 1%. For years now surgeons have been promised up to date 'laminar flow' ventilation equipment which, according to an expert in the field, Paul Moynagh is the best way the achieve as near sterile conditions as possible Surgeons were promised this years ago but I understand that that it is likely to be 5 or 6 years before this becomes a reality.'

He continued:

' To make matters worse the Government announced in September that a new Orthopaedic centre was to be provided by the private sector in Plymouth as part of their drive to reduce waiting times. It is ironic that such a centre would undoubtedly be built with state of the art ventilation systems that our NHS hospital desperately needs. It is also highly probable that the new centre would not be able to carry out orthopaedic operations on patients with other medical conditions, or revision cases where the initial operation has not been successful. These patients inevitably have a higher risk of infection and are likely to be treated at Derriford with its out of date operating theatre. The centre will be staffed by overseas doctors and nurses, probably from South Africa, and we have to question the economics of this approach and the moral issue of whether a highly sophisticated nation such as the U.K. should be taking valuable medical staff away from countries in far greater need such as South Africa. It is high time our NHS surgeons were given the long promised tools to do the job in the most effective way possible.'