"Why can't carers bring in laundry products anymore?"

The decision to prohibit visitors bringing in laundry products was taken after it was reported that a visitor was bringing in laundry detergent “Pods”. These are highly toxic and can cause serious injury and even death if deliberately ingested so the decision was taken in the interests of patient and staff safety not to allow these items into the hospital,and these items are now prohibited on the grounds of risk.

Washing powder is available for patients on the ward, but is also available for them to buy in Zest (patients shop).

It is not our usual practice to explain decisions taken on security grounds as they can compromise the safety and security of the hospital, its patients and staff. However, there is a sensible reason why the hospital can provide some items but visitors cannot provide the same. It can be difficult to detect a powdered substance, such as an illicit narcotic, if it were to be deliberately concealed within another powder, such as a box of washing detergent. The risk of such an event occurring can be managed by patients only obtaining washing powder directly from approved suppliers where we can be assured that the risk of the item being interfered with is minimised.

The decision to stop visitors bringing this item into the hospital was not made to increase the profit made by the shop. The shop is managed by the facilities department at the hospital, not the security department, and if you have concerns about what you consider to be unfair pricing, this could be raised with them.