One of the worst nightmares of all United Kingdom citizens has come true in this recent exposure of British hospitals. It was exposed that the National Health Services trusts failed to uncover the fact that they had asbestos in their own hospitals. The place in which sick people come to be healed and get better had something in them that would be harming patients even more.

    Asbestos are small, almost microscopic fibers that can cause a multitude of diseases. These range from cancers to lung disease and more. The most aggressive type of lung cancer caused by asbestos is mesothelioma, a deadly cancer that claims many lives across the world.

    Asbestos are commonly used in building materials, such as insulation, roofing, ducts, ceilings, cement, and more. This is what asbestos were used for in the Shrewsbury and Telford National Health Services hospitals.

    The fact that asbestos was used in these two hospitals was only uncovered after a renovation in 2012. A project manager named Les Small was the first to notice that something was wrong. He raised the concern that there was asbestos contamination across the nurse’s wing that was not being properly taken care of.

    Any time construction is happening in a building contaminated with asbestos, special precautions to keep asbestos exposure to a minimum. Les Small noticed that no special precautions were being taken, and ended up losing his job after raising awareness to the authorities.

    The Health and Safety Executive, a watchdog group, eventually caught wind of this and brought the Shrewsbury and Telford National Health Services to the Telford Magistrates Court. The Health and Safety Executive group claimed that The Telford National Health Services hospitals had  exposed workers and others to dangerous conditions and deadly asbestos exposure. After a short trial, the National Health Services plead guilty to these health and safety breaches.

    The NHS was fined over 16,000 pounds for this negligence.