Surgical safetyOperating theatres at a hospital in Navan are regularly left uncleaned overnight which means patients presenting for surgery in the morning are having their surgery delayed, it has been claimed.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA), which made the claim, said consultants at the hospital in Co Meath had been told operating theatre lists must finish by 4pm to facilitate cleaning and if for some reason this isn't achieved, the cleaning will be done at 8am the next morning.
There is serious concern among surgeons at Our Lady's Hospital, Navan, about this arrangement, according to Donal Duffy, assistant general secretary of the IHCA. "The priority in that hospital seems to be to facilitate the cleaners rather than patients," he said. "There is a history of theatres being left dirty overnight in the hospital and of morning theatre lists being delayed as a result," he said.
However, the Health Service Executive (HSE) North East region, which runs the hospital, has denied the claim. It said yesterday that theatres were never left unclean overnight. "Theatres are always cleaned immediately at the end of each list and after each emergency session."
But Mr Duffy insisted this was not the case. He cited as an example the fact that a surgeon had turned up for work on the Wednesday of Easter week and had to wait until a theatre was cleaned before he could begin work.
He said there was serious concern about what would happen if a patient required emergency surgery during the night and the theatres hadn't been cleaned. And there was also a worry that leaving the units uncleaned overnight could allow them become "a breeding ground for infection".
The HSE, in a statement, claimed there were appropriate measures in place which provide for the cleaning of operating theatres to the required standard: "These measures are continually monitored to ensure compliance and that the required standard is achieved and maintained. Under no circumstances do emergencies which arise during the night have to wait until the next morning for their operations."
There are four operating theatres in Navan hospital and almost 3,000 operations were carried out in them last year.