Published: Thursday, 3rd July, 2008 9:55am

Lives put at risk from dirty ambulances

by Gary Fitzpatrick

An ambulance outside Dunfermline's Queen Margaret Hospital – but how clean is it?
Pic by: Dunfermline Press

A WEST FIFE paramedic has hit out over standards of hygiene in ambulances.

She fears that dirty vehicles and a lack of deep cleaning are putting patients at risk of infections such as superbugs.

The woman, who has asked not to be named, recently met Dunfermline East MSP Helen Eadie to raise her concerns.

The paramedic claimed that pressure to meet targets on response times combined with understaffing was leaving little time for decontamination measures.

The hygiene complaints come as the Scottish Ambulance Service faces a management crisis.

Two chiefs stood down from their posts at the end of May as an inquiry was launched into allegations of harassment and bullying.

And earlier that month, the Press reported there had been a sudden freeze announced on overtime on Fife ambulance workers.

An ambulance worker said then, 'Lives could be put at risk because of these cutbacks.'

Now, a female colleague has highlighted fresh worries about superficial cleaning procedures putting patients in jeopardy.

She told the Press, 'The only thing that seems to matters these days is reaching target figures on response times.

'The standard of hygiene is very basic. Whereas in other areas they have cleaners, in Fife it is down to the crews.

'We wipe down surfaces at the start of the shift and that"s it. Sometimes if jobs are already piling up when you"re starting, it doesn"t even get that.

'Recently there was an incident with another crew who had to deal with a patient with severe diarrhoea.

"Afterwards, they asked to take the ambulance off the road so it could be deep-cleaned as would happen in a hospital ward. However, this was refused.

'The ambulance service got into trouble with the Health and Safety Executive a few years back over hygiene but things are no better now.

'The problem is that no-one is asking us about the problems facing the ambulance service.

'I still enjoy my work. There"s no job like it in the world but morale is the lowest it"s ever been.

'There were problems with all overtime suddenly being stopped and when someone went to the papers about it, the ban was dropped.'

The paramedic said she heard health secretary Nicola Sturgeon speaking about the ambulance service and so went to see Mrs Eadie 'to try to make sure the workers had a say'.

She went on to condemn standards of training in hygiene matters.

'If there is any training at all, it"s just a case of somebody passing on what they know and do to a new colleague,' she said.

'On one occasion there was a 70-year-old man lying in his garden for 45 minutes after falling and breaking his femur.

'There was a call at the same time for a young rugby player who had broken his collar bone and that was made the priority.

'There is the possiblity if you are called to other jobs that an elderly person with a broken ankle for example could be left for three or four hours because it"s not life threatening.'

Mrs Eadie said after the meeting that she was so concerned that she would be writing to Ms Sturgeon about the issues raised.

'I know people in this area will be alarmed to hear these comments about the lack of hygiene,' said the MSP.

'I for one would expect if I was travelling in an ambulance that hygiene would be of the highest standard. These vehicles need to be kept totally clean to avoid any risk of infection.'

Mrs Eadie wants ambulance staff to be able to make submissions to the investigations taking place on the running of the service on a one-to-one basis to avoid fear of recriminations.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Ambulance Service said, 'Arrangements are in place to clean vehicles across the Scottish Ambulance Service.

"We have a well defined cleaning and disinfection policy and we audit vehicle cleanliness standards against those arrangements.

'These processes require that vehicles should have both a daily and weekly clean and that the interior of the vehicle is wiped down after each patient.

'Standards of infection control are very important to us and our practices are subject to regular review.'

In May, the trade union Unison warned that inconsistent ambulance cleaning standards in different areas could lead to the spread of disease.

A survey by the union showed that some areas employed full-time cleaners who deep clean vehicles each morning while others depend on the paramedics to carry out a cursory wipe down and mop out.

Unison has been campaigning on the issue for several years and in 2005 its head of health Karen Jennings said, 'It"s clear that ambulances are potentially the weakest link in the fight against MRSA and other superbugs and we need national standards to be applied more rigorously and staff properly trained in effective procedures to close this loophole.'

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