The Lyell McEwin Hospital has apologised to 37 families who were given baby bottles that were incorrectly cleaned.
A statement from SA Health says the hospital’s bottles were cleaned with a descaling agent instead of detergent for six days from 1-6 January.
The hospital’s Dr Mark Thesinger said:
“Any adverse reaction would have occurred immediately after using an affected bottle and there is no on-going risk to a patient’s health.”
“Our doctors and nurses have assessed all case notes, and found no instances of external irritation, refusal to feed or any other unaccounted for irritability.
“Today we are contacting families to apologise and offer them a medical review if there are any concerns. We want to reassure families that the situation is being reviewed and that all actions will be taken to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“The descaler is a washing agent used to clean the dishwasher itself and was connected instead of detergent from the 1st until the 6th of January.
“This bottle washer is solely for patients in the nursery and maternity wards, no other areas of the hospital were affected.
“All washing agents are heavily diluted during the wash cycle, so the risk of any ingestion is minimal. However, we are taking a cautious approach and have discarded all affected infant bottles as a precaution.”
