Doctors defend outdoor nursery

DOCTORS have moved to defend an Scottish open-air nursery which is at loggerheads with Health Protection Scotland (HPS) over hygiene regulations.

The government quango has insisted that the Secret Garden nursery's use of antiseptic wipes to clean children's hands was not sufficient to eradicate the threat of the E coli bug and that the staff and children must therefore use soap and water.

But in letters to The Scotsman today three doctors claim the HPS' demands were impossible to implement and could jeopardise the future of the nursery, the only one of its type in the UK.

The doctors were responding to an article by Scotsman columnist Lesley Riddoch highlighting the stand-off between the Fife nursery and HPS.

Doctors Rob and Sue Armstrong of Guardbridge, Fife, said that they had sent both of their sons to the Secret Garden: "We want our children to enjoy outdoor environments as much as we do, with reasonable precautions but without fear of the outdoors and lurking 'germs'.

"Does the nanny state allow for parental choice?"

Dr Sharon Hedley, of St Andrews, who also has a child at the nursery, said "No scientific research is available to suggest that the nursery's current practice of using hand wipes and a hand sanitiser to clean hands is inadequate; in any case, this practice goes beyond what we, as a family, would typically do if outdoors with our children."

Responding to the claims by HPS that "no rural environment can be considered free of E coli 0157 contamination", Prof Glen Newey, of Pittenweem, said that the bacteria's transmission can also "occur readily from human to human in enclosed environments such as nurseries or daycare centres".