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‘I was disgusted at filthy state of Royal Free ward’
Carer tells of blood-stained floor
HOSPITAL hygiene standards are being called into question after a visitor told of his disgust at finding bloody rags, stained floors and abandoned used bed pans on a Royal Free ward.
Warwick Goodall, 26, of Clarence Way, Camden Town, told the New Journal after he witnessed the filthy ward his ailing grandmother Joan had been placed in.
Former nurse Joan, 82, was admitted to the Hampstead hospital’s12th-floor coronary care unit last week, where she is suffering from a severe heart condition.
Mr Goodall, who along with his mother Margaret is Mrs Goodall’s full-time carer – described finding filthy tissues and dried-blood-stained floors.
He said: “It’s made the family hugely distressed about what’s happening to my gran.”
In the space of a week, Mr Goodall found:
n dirty tissues in the lift,
n a used syringe packet on the floor,
n dried-blood stains on three different places on the ward,
n a dirty bed pan left in the open by a patient’s bed,
n and a bloody rag left next to a public telephone.
He said: “I phoned them up about the blood on the floor. They said they weren’t aware of it but they would get it cleaned up.
“For them not to be aware of this is disgusting. The coronary care unit is supposed to be the most hygienic.”
Mr Goodall has also complained that on two separate days he witnessed a lockable medicine cabinet left wide open for up to an hour.
He claims his grandmother fell out of a chair while on the ward, adding: “They should have kept an eye on her because she’s really frail.”
Mrs Goodall, a former nurse at the Middlesex Hospital and later a Harley Street medical secretary until her retirement, is a mother of five, with 12 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. She was the happy recipient of a New Journal hamper this Christmas.
A Royal Free spokesman said: “We regret the unhappiness felt by the family about cleanliness on Jenner Hoskin ward.
“Jenner Hoskin ward, along with all other wards in the hospital, is cleaned on a daily basis and there has been no occasion when domestic staff have not been there to clean it. The standard of cleanliness on wards is also audited on a monthly basis according to national NHS standards.
“We are grateful to the family for alerting us to the fact that a medicine cabinet was left unlocked for a period. This has been put right and staff have been reminded of the importance of keeping drugs locked away at all times. We are discussing the family’s concerns with them and will take any action necessary.”
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