23 August 2002
Parliamentarians and patients' bodies have blasted NHS managers for failing to make modifications to dangerous anaesthetic machines.
Health minister David Lammy this week announced that 139 anaesthetic machines have still not been fitted with the potentially life-saving safety devices called for by a Department of Health agency more than 14 months ago.
Yet a spokesman for the Medical Devices Agency, which issued the original safety notice, said the equipment was 'very cheap – minimal monies – and therefore not a tough financial consideration.'
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Dr Evan Harris, who tabled a Parliamentary question on the issue, said the failure of hospitals to invest in proper safety equipment 'seriously endangered patient lives'.
The machines in question could deliver fatal gas mixtures if used incorrectly. In 2001, three-year-old Najiyah Hussain died after medical staff accidentally administered nitrous oxide instead of oxygen at Newham General Hospital in east London.
Lammy said that of 5,843 anaesthetic machines in use across the NHS, 186 have neither an oxygen analyser nor a guard to regulate anaesthetic. Of those, 47 have had their ability to deliver dangerous mixtures disabled. The rest, he said, will be compliant by November.
A spokesman for the Association of Community Health Councils told Public Finance: 'The hospitals in question must act quickly in the interests of their patients' safety.'
PFaug2002
