Hospital Kassel: surgical cutlery was sterile

Klinikum Kassel: Despite proven residues, the surgical cutlery was sterile

At the beginning of January this year, it became known that the Fulda Clinic relied on the surgical cutlery from other hospitals, as hygienic defects in its own department repeatedly occurred. For this reason, medical tools are currently being requested from other clinics, including the Kassel Clinic. During a review of the same surgical tools that were delivered yesterday, it emerged that they also had hygienic defects in the form of deposits. Today the Kassel Clinic announced that despite the deposits, the delivered instruments were sterile. When an investigation was initiated, it was found that deposits were present, but no organic residues could be found on the surgical cutlery. In this connection, the clinic management announced that the surgical instruments were 100 percent sterile at all times. In addition, there would have been no risk to the health of the patients at any time. The central sterilization is currently temporarily closed due to further investigations. Therefore, patient care is currently only possible to a limited extent.

Clinic draws up package of measures To prevent such incidents from happening again, a catalog for further measures is to be drawn up. New rules are to be laid down in order to avoid residues on medical tools in the future. However, the clinic management did not want to give precise information about the content of the new guidelines. First of all, the regulations will be presented to the Hesse regional council today. The Hessian Minister of Social Affairs Stefan Grüttner (CDU) announced yesterday that the events in Fulda and Kassel would be examined in detail by health authorities. In addition, they want to offer further training measures for nurses, doctors and technical staff so that such hygienic defects in the instruments do not repeat themselves. (sb)

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Contaminated surgical cutlery at Fulda Clinic
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Resistant bacteria in German hospitals

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