Bloodied medical equipment ‘left lying around’ Bantry General Hospital

Blood-stained medical equipment used to perform a liver biopsy was left lying around in a manner that posed a risk of spreading disease at Bantry General Hospital, according to the health watchdog.

During an unannounced visit to the West Cork hospital in April, an inspector from the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) spotted the equipment “in a dish on top of the bedpan washer” in a utility room.

“The equipment was unclean and visibly stained with blood which posed a risk of the spread of transmissible disease and was not managed in accordance with evidence-based practice,” the inspector wrote in her report.