Anaesthetic tube blockage not deliberate

Last year’s spate of anaesthetic tube blockages which put a number of patients at risk and led to the death of a young boy at Broomsfield Hospital, Chelmsford, were not the result of criminal conduct. This the finding of Essex Police after investigation of all incidents. In the Essex incident two common pieces of equipment had been put in a drawer together, the one inadvertently slipping in and becoming lodged in the other. Tests by the Emergency Care Research Institute indicated that such an event could happen ‘relatively easily’, chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson putting the probable incidence at one in 5mn. Warnings to prevent reoccurrence have now been issued to anaesthetists.