6:20am Thursday 19th February 2009
By Jamie Henderson
Springfield Hospital has been accused of playing down the death of an elderly lady after an outbreak of legionnaires’ disease in one of its ward in September last year.
Last week hospital bosses were questioned about the outbreak by the council’s health and overview scrutiny committee, chaired by Councillor Ian Hart.
The committee said the hospital had understated the incident by claiming it was only “a minor outbreak”.
Councillors also asked whether anyone had died as a result of the outbreak and Springfield chiefs were forced to come clean and admit that someone had in fact died.
The hospital had apparently informed the council’s environmental services department about the outbreak, but did not reveal someone had died.
Coun Ian Hart said: “As far as the health committee was concerned, we were not informed by the SW Mental Health trust, despite having six-weekly meetings with them.
“We are requesting an urgent meeting with the 'interim' SW Mental Health trust chief executive, to discuss this issue and several other areas of concern.”
Mark Clarke, Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Tooting, said: “It seems that Springfield have tried to down play this death and it is an insult to the person who died to describe it as a minor outbreak.
“This attitude makes Springfield no friends in the community and the new management need to make a commitment to proper openness.”
Springfield Hospital last week denied trying to cover up the legionnaires' death.
A spokesman said it informed all staff at the time, as well as patients and their carers in the affected ward.
The hospital also said it informed relevant councils and primary care trusts about the situation.The trust claimed it did not inform the public because they were “not at risk”.
A spokesman for Springfield said: “The trust is sorry that members of the Wandsworth health overview and scrutiny committee feel that they were not properly communicated with.
“Senior officers at Wandsworth Council were provided with regular updates from the trust.”
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