'Filth and stressed nurses'at C.diff hospital

Published on Monday 7 June 2010 23:06

A PUBLIC inquiry into Scotland's worst outbreak of Clostridium difficile has been told of appalling hygiene standards at the hospital involved.

• Vale of Leven Hospital. Picture: PA

On the first day of evidence into the outbreak, which contributed to the deaths of 18 patients, relatives told of "filthy conditions" at the Vale of Leven Hospital in Dunbartonshire.

Brenda Bowes fought back tears as she told how her mother Margaret Dalton contracted Clostridium difficile (C.diff), saying that she believed staff were too stressed to clean patients properly.

Mrs Bowes said she found faeces on her mother's clothing and even under her fingernails while the 74-year-old was being treated for cancer.

She said: "My mother had asked me to cut her nails and when I did I found she had faeces under them.

"I had also been taking home her laundry and found faeces on her dressing gown and slippers."

Asked whether or not she had raised these issues with hospital staff, Mrs Bowes said she had not because she thought the staff were "too stressed".

The mother-of-three, said: "The conditions of the ward were not what I would have expected them to have been. The staff were under enormous stress. The level of stress among them was appalling."

A total of 55 people contracted the deadly infection and 18 died at the hospital between December 2007 and June 2008.

C.diff was blamed for nine deaths and was a contributory factor in nine more.

The proceedings opened with a one-minute silence in memory of those who died during the outbreak.

Mrs Bowes told the public inquiry into the deaths – chaired by retired judge Lord MacLean and held at the Community Central Halls in Maryhill, Glasgow – that her mother was suffering from non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer.

Mrs Bowes said she quickly noticed that there seemed to be a diarrhoea bug on the ward.

She told the inquiry that the toilets were so busy that her mother, who was a "private person" and did not want to bother nurses, had to use a "rusty, dirty and quite disgusting" commode.

Her mother was diagnosed with C.diff on 15 December 2007 and her condition gradually worsened until her death on 31 December.

Demanding a tougher regime to make sure a repeat of the outbreak does not happen, Ms Bowes, a primary school teacher, said: "At many times I felt that perhaps there wasn't as robust an inspection system as there should have been.

"I hope that a more firm and more robust inspection is put in place. I feel that something has to be done."

The inquiry also heard from Nancy Logan, the daughter of 85-year-old Agnes Campbell who was admitted to Vale of Leven Hospital with chest pains in December 2007.

Mrs Logan said: "I was horrified when I went into the hospital. It had been a long time since I had actually visited the hospital and I was shocked at the state of it.

"The wards seemed to be in a turmoil, chaos, and my mum was actually quite distressed."

Her mother became upset when she asked where a toilet was and was told by staff they were very busy because it was meal times, Mrs Logan said.

"All I can describe it to you is that it was just chaos. It looked as though there wasn't enough staff and the ward was a mess.

"She did not have a cabinet beside her bed. There were boxes opposite her bed.

"I wasn't happy with the way the ward was. Beds were being moved about. It seems they weren't prepared for other patients coming into the ward.

"It was just chaos. I thought there was something not right here."

Mrs Campbell was diagnosed with C.diff on 6 January, 2008.

Mrs Logan said she noticed a change in her mother when she was moved into a different ward at the hospital and also later when she was moved to an isolation room.

She was then told by a doctor later on 9 January that her mother had multiple organ failure and was dying.

Mrs Logan said: "Her last words were: 'Nancy let me go'.

"She had had enough."

Mrs Campbell died on 13 January.

Mrs Logan went on: "She was glad to go into hospital. It would have been kinder to let my mother die of a heart attack than let her suffer in the way she did with C.diff."

Mrs Logan said the hospital did not give her any leaflets about the bug.

"There was a notice on the wall about winter vomiting but nothing about C.diff," she told the inquiry.

She said she was "horrified" she had to use the internet to find out about how damaging C.diff was.

Breaking down in tears, she said: "I just hope it never happens again."

With emotions running high at the inquiry, one relative interrupted the evidence and shouted from the public gallery, saying: "You are liars, all of you. I've heard nothing but lies for four years. My mother's dead."

Lord MacLean ordered the man to leave, which he did.

At the start of the hearing, which is expected to last two weeks, Lord MacLean said some of the evidence may prove tough for the families.

He said: "Over the coming days we will hear from surviving patients and relatives of those affected by the tragic outbreak of C difficile at the Vale of Leven Hospital.

"The process of recalling events will inevitably bring back painful memories for the relatives who lost someone close to them but this is a vital part of the evidence to the inquiry."

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon ordered the inquiry into the C.diff deaths last year. An initial review of procedures at the hospital following the C.diff outbreak found "inadequate" infection controls.

Around 15 relatives of patients who died attended yesterday's hearing.

Evidence from relatives and former patients is due to continue into next week and then further medical evidence will be heard.

Several hearings will be held in August, October and November. A report is scheduled to be published at the end of May 2011.

The inquiry continues today.

Inquiry chairman was judge in Lockerbie trial

PRIOR to chairing the C.diff inquiry, Lord MacLean was perhaps best known for his involvement in the Lockerbie bombing court case.

Before retiring from the bench in 2005, he was one of the judges who presided at the trial of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

Though the conviction was widely criticised, Lord MacLean defended the verdict, telling The Scotsman in 2006: "I have no doubt, on the evidence we heard, that the judgments we made and the verdicts we reached were correct".

He is a member of the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland, responsible for the selection of new judges and sheriffs.

He has chaired a series of boards to adjudicate and investigate controversial areas of law and events, including the committee to review the sentencing and treatment of serious sexual and violent offenders, and the inquiry into the death of Ulster loyalist leader Billy Wright in the Maze prison.

He was also chairman of the council of the Cockburn Association, which campaigns to protect and retain Edinburgh's building heritage, a post he held between 1988 and 1996.