Children at top hospital had to wash in buckets

Sick children at a leading hospital were forced to wash in buckets for almost a month after bosses failed to fix the hot water supply.

More than 100 youngsters, some of them seriously ill, were left without hot running water.

Parents were forced to carry hot water in buckets from a single working tap in a sluice room so their children could wash. Youngsters suffering from brain tumours and cystic fibrosis were among those affected.

Water issue: Children were washed from sick bowls at King's College Hospital

Despite complaints from patients and staff, management at King's College Hospital, South London, failed to fix a broken pump - and left half the children's wards without hot water for weeks.

One mother said she saw infants standing in buckets to be washed while parents carried hot water to patients' bedsides in 'sick bowls'.

Gemma Dadgostar, whose 18-month-old son Aiden was being treated for cystic fibrosis at the hospital in January, said she was shocked that management had failed to solve the problem by the time he was discharged on February 8.

'I thought it was absolutely outrageous,' Mrs Dadgostar, 29, said. 'Hot water is an absolutely basic necessity.

'Aiden was just recovering from surgery and the last thing he needed was to be bathing in lukewarm water.

'We had to carry hot water to his bedside in cardboard sick bowls. Other parents were washing their children in buckets. It was bizarre to see. In a hospital of that size it's unbelievable.'

Mrs Dadgostar said that when she complained to the hospital's Patient Advice and Liaison Services they said the problem would be fixed by the following week or the ward would close.

Aiden's grandmother Nadine Helsdown said the scene was 'absolutely disgusting' when she visited the hospital last month.

'Other parents with children on the ward were absolutely scandalised,' Mrs Helsdown, 51, said. 'The ward manager was disgusted all the staff were. They asked and asked and tried their best to sort it out, but nothing was done.

'Two bathrooms, five side wards and the toilet in Aiden's ward were affected - none had hot water. A lot of the time the ward was full . . . some of the children there had brain tumours.'

King's College is one of 18 hospitals named in a report by the Department of Health this month for failing to comply with more than ten orders to prevent people dying from accidents involving drugs, surgery or equipment.

Katherine Murphy, director of the Patients' Association, last night demanded a full inquiry into why the hospital did not act sooner. She said: 'This is absolutely appalling and shows a completely cavalier attitude to patient safety.'

The hospital said: 'We experienced intermittent problems with the hot water supply on three paediatric wards during January and February.

'The underlying problem was very difficult to trace, but it has now been identified and rectified. We would like to apologise to patients and their families who were affected by the problem.'