even more as Jamieson pushed open one of the doors and turned left as instructed by the arrow. He was forced to run his finger round the inside of his collar as he approached the figures in white.
'Who's in charge here?' he enquired, raising his voice to be heard above the hiss of steam and also to compensate for the fact that the man he was asking was wearing a full face visor. The man pointed to a green door and Jamieson followed his direction and knocked.
'Come.'
Jamieson entered to find a large, well built man seated at a desk so small that it seemed to emphasise his bulk. He held a pen in one of his fat podgy hands and was ticking off items on a list. Like the others, he was wearing white cotton trousers and a white surgical tunic top with a vee neck. Dark chest hair reached above the centre of the vee. There was a strong smell of aftershave in the room, not expensive, just strong.
'I understand that you are in charge here?' said Jamieson.
'Who wants to know?' asked the man.
Jamieson said who he was.
'Charge Nurse Blaney,' said the man, leaning across the desk and offering his hand. Jamieson shook it and noticed how soft and flabby it was.
'How can I help you?'
'Mr Thelwell was here a few minutes ago,' said Jamieson.
'Yes.'
'What did he want?'
Blaney’s expression changed to one of suspicion. He said, 'I don't think I can discuss…'
Jamieson had been prepared for the response. He interrupted by saying. 'If you call Mr Crichton on extension 2631 he will tell you that I have the right to ask these questions.
'I'll take your word for it,' said Blaney. 'Mr Thelwell likes to collect his own instrument packs.'
Jamieson felt his throat tighten. He had to clear it before asking, 'What exactly does that mean?'
'Mr Thelwell insists on picking up the instruments that go to his theatre himself.'
'Has he always done this?'
'Just for the past couple of months.'
'He just comes down here and takes away his instrument packs?' asked Jamieson.
'He does more than that,' replied Blaney. 'He likes to monitor the sterilising process.'
'What exactly does he do?' asked Jamieson.
'He checks the temperature and pressure gauges during the autoclave cycle, monitors the graph recorder, waits till the instrument packs come out then takes them up to his theatre.'
'Did Mr Thelwell say why he does this?' asked Jamieson.
'A safety precaution,' replied Blaney.
'A safety precaution,' repeated Jamieson thoughtfully.
'That's right,' said Blaney. 'Is something wrong?'
'No… nothing,' said Jamieson but his mind was turning cartwheels. The revelation that Thelwell was an intermediate in the chain of events that brought sterile instruments from the supply department to the theatres was something that he hadn't reckoned on.
'Mr Thelwell is a very conscientious man. He leaves nothing to chance,' said Blaney. 'Even though Dr Evans puts these machines through their paces every week and the graph recorders are always spot on, he likes to see things for himself.'
'Does Mr Thelwell just collect his own instruments?' asked Jamieson, trying to make it sound like a casual inquiry.
'No, he takes all the packs for gynaecology,' replied Blaney. 'There's nothing wrong in that is there?' he added in a slightly aggressive response to the frown on Jamieson's face.
Jamieson said that there wasn't but his mind was working overtime.
'Perhaps you would like to see the routine?' asked Blaney.
Jamieson looked at Blaney, smiled and then said, 'Why not.'
Blaney gave Jamieson a conducted tour of the sterilising hall, stopping at intervals to explain things when he thought it necessary.
'Do you always use the same steriliser for the instruments?' asked Jamieson.
Blaney nodded and pointed to one of the autoclaves. 'That one,' he said. 'All sterile supplies for Gynaecology go through that one.'
Jamieson looked at the dials on the front. He said, 'What would happen if the steam supply should fail?'
'The machine would reset itself and refuse to proceed with the cycle.'
'What if it should fail half way through a cycle?'
'Same thing. It would reset itself and the graph recorder would show the failure.'
'Is there a manual over-ride?' asked Jamieson.
'I don't understand,' said Blaney.
'Can you convince the machine that it has completed its sterilising cycle when it actually hasn't?'
'But who would ever want to do that?' asked Blaney.
'Can it be done?'
'No,' said Blaney. 'The automatic timer will not start until the temperature has climbed to a pre-set value and if at any time during the cycle the temperature should fall below that value, the timer would reset itself and refuse to start until the temperature had climbed again.'
Jamieson looked at the chart recorder on the front of the machine and said, 'Do you keep these charts?'
'Every one,' said Blaney.
'So if I were to ask you for the chart from the run Mr Thelwell has just been watching you could show it to me?'
'Of course.'
'I'd like to see it,' said Jamieson.
Blaney shrugged and asked Jamieson to wait while he fetched it from his office. He returned with a circular piece of graph paper. 'This is it,' said Blaney. 'Dated and initialled.' He traced the blue line on the paper with his forefinger and said, 'As you can see, it was a normal run. The temperature climbed steadily as the steam entered the machine and at 131 degrees centigrade the timer was triggered.' The finger traced a plateau on the graph. 'The temperature held steady until the timer cut out and here…' Blaney's finger began to drop with the blue line. 'is where the steam was shut off and the temperature started to fall.'
'Thank you,' said Jamieson. He made a mental note of the reference number on the graph before asking, 'How often is the machine checked?'
'Dr Evans checks it out every week, sometimes twice.'
'You couldn't ask for more than that,' said Jamieson.
Blaney smiled modestly and said, 'We do our best.'
Jamieson returned to the Microbiology department to pursue his original intention of going to see Clive Evans but his mind was now almost totally preoccupied with the fact that Thelwell was removing surgical instruments from CSSD and holding them in his personal possession before they were used. Why? Why? Why?
He found Evans in what had been John Richardson's office. He was sifting through some papers.
'Just checking up on some overdue lab reports,' said Evans by way of explanation when he saw Jamieson.
'Did you find them?' asked Jamieson.
'Not yet. What can I do for you?'
'I wanted to talk to you about correlating your efforts with the Public Health people so that you don't start getting in each other's way,’ said Jamieson.
'When will they come?' asked Evans.
'Tomorrow morning.'
'Perhaps I could have a word with their chap before they start and we can agree on not duplicating each other's work.'
'Good idea. I'll bring their people across to the lab when they arrive,' said Jamieson.
'Was there something else?' asked Evans seeing that Jamieson was lingering on.
