Thursday 15 January 2009

Police question NHS staff over C.diff deaths

Opposition parties have been calling for a public enquiry for months now on the subject of 18 C.diff deaths in Scotland. Labour Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has consistently resisted the calls.

The Police are not so coy.

Nurses are to face police questioning over deaths from Clostridium difficile at a Dunbartonshire hospital, it has emerged.

Officers will interview staff at the Vale of Leven Hospital, where a C.diff outbreak was linked to 18 deaths.

A report which identified failures in hygiene and infection control was passed to prosecutors last year.


A total of 16 CID and uniformed officers are investigating the case.

The best Nicola Sturgeon has come up with so far, amid her stalling, is to say that she is "sympathetic" with family members who want an enquiry. They have been saying the same for quite a while, but it's only when the calls were renewed once the Police got involved, that Ms Sturgeon could even lower herself to sympathy. Still no public enquiry planned though.

If 18 deaths in one hospital isn't grounds for an immediate enquiry, what is?

Source: BBC Scotland

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