A HOSPITAL in Oxford has installed an emergency alarm system after staff were handed whistles to call for help in a crisis.

Last month, the Oxford Mail revealed there had never been a unified emergency call system in older wards at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

Instead managers had given nurses working the general surgery theatres a plastic whistle worth a ‘few pence’ to blow in an emergency.

Staff working at the hospital contacted the Oxford Mail and dubbed the whistles an ‘insult’ to nurses and to patients.

But yesterday the Oxford University Hospital (OUH) trust confirmed it had installed the £14,000 alarm.

Amanda Middleton, general manager of critical care, theatres, diagnostics and pharmacy, said: “We are pleased that a replacement call bell system has been completed within the theatre department at the John Radcliffe Hospital which allows staff to call for assistance within the theatre or anaesthetic rooms.

“It works when a member of staff presses a button which, in turn, activates display screens located at the end of each corridor, outside the recovery room, in the staff coffee room, and outside each theatre and anaesthetic room.

“The installation of the new system has the cost the Trust approximately £14,000 and brings the theatre department in line with modern operating theatre communication.”

Before the introduction of the whistles, which are believed to have been bought from eBay for a few pence, there was no one system for calling for help.

Instead nursing staff working on general surgery theatres would use the bedside call bell to summon a porter to grab emergency supplies and equipment.

A light was activated in the porters’ waiting area, with three flashes indicating there was an emergency. But the porters were then moved to the corridors in an attempt to make them more “visible and accessible”, meaning they could not see the lights.

So hospital management instead gave staff whistles to summon them.

A member of staff contacted the Oxford Mail in November to express their concerns and called again yesterday to thank the paper.

The staff member said: “I know management will deny it, but the staff know this wouldn’t have happened so quickly if the Oxford Mail hadn’t got involved.

“It is a shame it had to work that way, but at the end of the day we are happy because we feel patients are much safer.”