Ipswich Hospital has had to cancel operations due to concerns over surgical equipment, a whistleblower has claimed.
The whistleblowing staff member, who did not wish to be named, has contacted this newspaper to speak about the situation at the hospital, saying staff were unsure whether newly delivered surgical instruments were sterile or not.
The whistleblower said the situation had been happening over the last couple of weeks and had affected operations in ophthalmology and gynaecology, among other departments.
Dr Angela Tillett, chief medical officer at ESNEFT, which also runs Colchester Hospital, confirmed some surgeries had been cancelled but said the safety of patients was the trust's priority.
She said: “Our most important priority is always the safety of our patients.
"We have been working with all our partners in both the health system and within our networks to manage a very high demand for sterilising medical instruments used to carry out operations.
“We requested an external review of our sterile services by an expert engineer as part of our response to managing this issue.
"We are putting in place all of the recommendations of this review to make sure that we are maintaining high standards of patient safety.
“We are also putting in more checks of all medical instruments before they are used in any clinical area.
"We are working hard to make sure any impact on patients is kept to the absolute minimum.”
Later last night a spokesperson for the hospital said the checks on the equipment were part of a quality assurance review and that no operations had been cancelled because of non-sterilised equipment.
She said: “We regularly review services to make sure they comply with all the national guidance. We asked for an external reviewer to review sterile services to make sure we are maintaining standards.
"We have taken the decision to double check all our medical instruments before they are used in any operation as a quality and safety measure. This has sadly meant that a small number of operations have had to be cancelled while these checks are taking place.”
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