Edinburgh nurse breached quarantine and arrived at hospital for shift in operating theatre

The nurse was meant to self-isolate for two weeks after returning from a holiday to Bulgaria.

A theatre nurse (not pictured) breached quarantine restrictions on return home from holiday. Picture: Getty

An operating theatre nurse working at a private hospital breached government quarantine restrictions when she returned to Edinburgh from holiday in Bulgaria and arrived at work the following Monday.

The theatre nurse – who this newspaper is choosing not to name – returned from a holiday in Bulgaria on Saturday 29 August and was due to work in the private Spire Murrayfield hospital on Monday.

Bulgaria, which has a population of around seven million, is seeing around 100 cases of Covid-19 on average per day and has been on the mandatory quarantine list since July.

The Spire group has two hospital in Scotland, including one at Murrayfield in Edinburgh. The nurse arrived to work at the Murrayfield hospital.

Overall it has seen around 16,500 cases and 642 deaths from the coronavirus, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

It is understood she breached quarantine restrictions requiring her to self-isolate for 14 days and arrived at work for her shift, before being screened at the entrance to the hospital.

She then had her temperature checked before spending around 20 to 30 minutes in the hospital.

Staff then discovered she was required to self-isolate and asked the nurse to leave and return home. The nurse did not come into contact with any patients.

One staff member said: “Everyone knew she had just returned from her three week holiday in Bulgaria. I felt extremely anxious and fearful for patient safety. I was also scared for my own health and safety as well as my family's.”

The breach has led opposition politicians to raise concerns around the effectiveness of the current quarantine enforcement procedures with the Scottish Conservatives saying the incident reveals “troubling weaknesses” in Test and Protect.

Humza Yousaf, the justice secretary, has come under rising pressure to more stringently enforce quarantine through higher numbers of travellers being contacted by Test and Protect.

This week, the Scottish Government announced a further £1m towards recruiting 25 more contact tracers at the National Contact Tracing Centre dedicated to checking quarantine restrictions are being followed after recruitment was labelled “woeful” by Scottish Labour.

Donald Cameron, the Scottish Conservative health spokesperson, urged everyone to follow quarantine rules.

He said: “Quarantine rules must be followed by everyone, especially those working on the frontline in our hospitals.

“It is good news that staff realised the mistake quickly and nobody appears to have been infected, but that's no excuse for putting people at risk.

“It also reveal troubling weaknesses in the SNP Government’s Test and Protect system, given that it was quite clear this nurse should have been quarantining.

“I urge the SNP to investigate if this was a one-off issue or representative of wider problems with the tracing system.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP called for a “more robust” system enforcing quarantine.

He said: "At the moment we are heavily relying on people following the advice, understanding when quarantine applies and self-isolating.

"The Scottish Government is doing a small number of spot checks but has admitted that tracers have failed to find hundreds of people. We need a more robust system in place if we are to drive the virus out.

"I'm glad that medical staff caught this incident early before anyone was put at risk."

A Spire Healthcare spokesperson said safety of patients and staff is the top priority for the hospital.

They said: “Rigorous safety processes are in place within our hospitals, for the protection of all patients, staff and consultants. Everyone is screened and temperature checked before entering our buildings.

"Masks are compulsory, hand-washing stations, social distancing measures and safe pathways are in operation across our hospitals.

"One colleague, having returned from a country not on the Scottish Government exemption list, attended for work on Monday and was promptly asked to leave the hospital before her shift started.

"The colleague was reminded of Scottish Government guidance regarding self-isolation. There is no suggestion this colleague is Covid positive.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “It is the responsibility of the individual who is travelling to check the regulations and to abide by quarantine if they are travelling from a country covered by the regulations.

“Travellers arriving from a non-exempt country are expected to quarantine for 14 days on arrival in Scotland unless they come under one of the limited number of exempted categories. This means staying in their accommodation, even if they don’t have symptoms, to help control coronavirus.

“Wherever people have travelled from – an exempt country or not – it is a legal requirement to complete a Passenger Locator Form and provide it to Border Force officials. Failure to do so can also result in a fine since this, along with any failure to self-isolate where required, poses a significant risk to wider public health across Scotland.”

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