[Sussex] Knife crime at Royal Sussex County Hospital

[AmexRuislip]

Brighton: Surgeon operated with penknife he uses to cut up lunch

A surgeon is alleged to have used a Swiss Army knife because he could not find a sterile scalpel.

www.bbc.co.uk

A surgeon at a crisis-hit NHS trust used a Swiss Army penknife to open up the chest of a patient because he claimed he could not find a sterile scalpel.

University Hospitals Sussex has said the operation was an emergency, but the surgeon’s actions were “outside normal procedures and should not have been necessary”.

A tad worrying

 

[BBassic]

In related but unrelated news I just watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy where a surgeon opened someone up with the metal clippy bit from a clipboard.

 

[jcdenton08]

Outrageous, was stunned when I read this. Loads of dodgy deaths under investigation too. Scary.

 

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

 

[The red pepper kid]

Brighton: Surgeon operated with penknife he uses to cut up lunch

A surgeon is alleged to have used a Swiss Army knife because he could not find a sterile scalpel.

www.bbc.co.uk

A surgeon at a crisis-hit NHS trust used a Swiss Army penknife to open up the chest of a patient because he claimed he could not find a sterile scalpel.

University Hospitals Sussex has said the operation was an emergency, but the surgeon’s actions were “outside normal procedures and should not have been necessary”.

A tad worrying

surely they have a machine to sterilize implements ---they cant be throwing them after one use ?

 

[AmexRuislip]

surely they have a machine to sterilize implements ---they cant be throwing them after one use ?

Of course they have. The NHS have to be seen to be more frugal I guess.
The NHS are getting a battering these days due to incompetent trust managers, they certainly don't need actual people who allegedly know what they're doing (trained medical experts), taking short cuts and help give the generic hospital trust a helping hand in being slagged off.

When I had my op, I was offered either a surgeon competent in performing robotic surgery or Edward Scissor Hands

 

[Wardy's twin]

surely they have a machine to sterilize implements ---they cant be throwing them after one use ?

in the old days when everyone smoked you could just sterilise the blade using your gas lighter...

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Brighton: Surgeon operated with penknife he uses to cut up lunch

A surgeon is alleged to have used a Swiss Army knife because he could not find a sterile scalpel.

www.bbc.co.uk

A surgeon at a crisis-hit NHS trust used a Swiss Army penknife to open up the chest of a patient because he claimed he could not find a sterile scalpel.

University Hospitals Sussex has said the operation was an emergency, but the surgeon’s actions were “outside normal procedures and should not have been necessary”.

A tad worrying

Fake news shirley?

 

[dsr-burnley]

Brighton: Surgeon operated with penknife he uses to cut up lunch

A surgeon is alleged to have used a Swiss Army knife because he could not find a sterile scalpel.

www.bbc.co.uk

A surgeon at a crisis-hit NHS trust used a Swiss Army penknife to open up the chest of a patient because he claimed he could not find a sterile scalpel.

University Hospitals Sussex has said the operation was an emergency, but the surgeon’s actions were “outside normal procedures and should not have been necessary”.

A tad worrying

The surgeon shouldn't have to find a scalpel. He ought to be holding out his hand and saying "scalpel" and one will be put there. Surgical skills are too valuable to be wasted on looking for kit.

 

[DavePage]

hopefully not the corkscrew

 

[beorhthelm]

has a whiff of at least misreporting about it. why would a surgeon be looking for scalpel? if none available wouldn't surgery be halted before he even went it? why would he have penknife on him and be able to root around in gown to get it?

 

[hart's shirt]

Cutting edge technology needed.

 

[jackanada]

In the the days TSSU (theatre sterile surgical supply) was just part of your entirely public owned hospital.
Now it's a private venture that takes profit out and even the standard theatre pack constitutes more of the cost of an operation than the surgeon.
Also should you start running low on supplies then there's a whole (expensive) beurocracy to navigate . Where previously you'd send someone down to TSSU to say FFS we're almost out of scalpels and someone would get a wiggle on and have a batch in the autoclave minutes later.

 

[el punal]

hopefully not the corkscrew

That’s the beauty of the Swiss Army knife - multi-purpose for every eventuality. The corkscrew attachment to be used later.

 

[Albion my Albion]

Fake news shirley?

Fake news, Shirley NOT!

That's what Trump lied.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

 

[Eeyore]

When I was at the Princes Royal, I had my chest cut open under a local. The sugeon asked if I wanted some music on but I chose to have the cricket.

As Stuart Broad ran in to bowl the surgeon delivered his first cut. Only he hadn't anaesthetised that area.

It wasn't 'owzat I yelped. Just the ow

 

[schmunk]

I heard that at the Royal Sussex County Vetinary Hospital, a doctor used his penknife to get a stone out of a horse's hoof...!

 

[Perfidious Albion]

Fake news shirley?

The item is well reported in different sources but the “ Health Service Journal” said this
“A BBC story about a patient being operated on with a penknife has been challenged by the trust involved as misleading.”

Unfortunately the rest of it is behind an account and paywall . But I am sure there is more to this.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

In the the days TSSU (theatre sterile surgical supply) was just part of your entirely public owned hospital.
Now it's a private venture that takes profit out and even the standard theatre pack constitutes more of the cost of an operation than the surgeon.
Also should you start running low on supplies then there's a whole (expensive) beurocracy to navigate . Where previously you'd send someone down to TSSU to say FFS we're almost out of scalpels and someone would get a wiggle on and have a batch in the autoclave minutes later.

So why are these issues (and police investigations) focusing on 1 hospital?

It's possible to have one where things are poorly managed / has poor staff? How many other occasions in other hospitals has a surgeon decided to use a penknife they brought in that they usually use to cut up their fruit? is it a widespread issue (then you'd have a point) or a localised issue to one hospital on one occasion?

besides, there have been plenty of recent examples of poorly run and managed public services recently elsewhere