HC Deb 17 December 1970 vol 808 c443W
99. Mr. W. Baxter

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the deaths of 12 patients at Killearn Hospital caused by a germ called Klebsiella aerogenes.

Mr. Gordon Campbell

Eight patients, not 12, died from klebsiella meningitis. These deaths occurred in the Western Regional Neurosurgical Unit, which was then at Killearn Hospital, in the period July, 1968 to May, 1969.

This organism is normally found among human beings but is usually innocuous. I am asking the Epidemiology Sub-Committee of my Standing Advisory Committee on Laboratory Services to look into the implications of this outbreak for the future.