Dumbarton & Vale of Leven Reporter | News

Tuesday, 6th January, 2009

Published: Tuesday, 10th June, 2008 10:30

How many more have died?

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Sarah McGinty

Three more families have contacted the Reporter this week asking for honesty and transparency from the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board after their loved ones succumbed to the killer bug.

Two of those patients — Sarah McGinty and Alister Johnston — contracted C-diff at the Vale. The family of another patient — John Hannah — who picked up C-diff from an unknown source — raised concerns that neither the Vale or the Royal Alexandra hospitals were able to cope with his infection.

And now politicians have backed the calls for an investigation, putting pressure on the health board to “come clean” on C-diff at the Vale.

And now the angry and grieving families are being backed by politicians for an investigation into the spate of C-diff related deaths at the Vale since January.

Alister Johnston

A concerned Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton has called for more transparency from the health board.

John McFall, MP for West Dunbartonshire echoed Jackie’s calls. He said: “The drip, drip manner in which this has been released into the public domain is not helpful."

However, a GGC spokeswoman, said that the C-Diff bug is not uncommon in adults and is found in one-in-50 adults who carry the bug without showing symptoms.

She said a review team is currently looking into the control procedures used to control the bug at the Vale.

She added: “Every effort is taken to prevent this infection in all our hospitals and an Incident Review Team committee has been convened and is reviewing all of the procedures that were in place to control C Difficile at the Vale of Leven Hospital.