‘If it wasn’t for the whistleblower, would we have ever known?’
05:59, 22 Mar 2026Updated 17:55, 22 Mar 2026
Ieuan Williams and his dad Lee Williams are speaking out about hospital failings that have put the schoolboy and 20 other patients in a horrendous position(Image: Conor Gogarty)
The man in medical scrubs parked his van, pulled a surgical mask over his face, and knocked at the Williams family’s door.
The letter he handed over was vague but hinted at something serious. “It is important that we speak with you, so we kindly ask that you contact us as soon as you are able,” read the message from Dr Seema Srivastava, medical director of Aneurin Bevan university health board.
Lee and Karen Williams, of Cwmbran, wondered if there had been an issue with their 15-year-old son Ieuan’s brace-fitting three weeks earlier at Newport’s Royal Gwent hospital. After a couple of phone calls, it turned out they were correct. But what the hospital told them was far more alarming than anything they had imagined.
Ieuan is among 21 patients affected by a catastrophic blunder at the hospital, where operations and examinations were carried out with unsterilised medical instruments on February 25 and 26.
The failings – revealed by WalesOnline after a whistleblower bravely came forward – mean there is a risk that Ieuan and the other patients have been infected with blood-borne viruses such as HIV, Hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C. Although he has been told the risk is “very low”, Ieuan will need to take four tests across six months before he can get an all-clear.
We can now reveal that the health board gave WalesOnline misleading information on Tuesday when it claimed it had “already contacted the patients affected”. It was not until the following day (March 18), after we had broken the story, that the Williamses received the letter. This is particularly bizarre given we had obliged the health board’s request to hold off on publishing for a few days so it could inform patients.
The health board had ample opportunity to inform patients much earlier. It discovered the sterilisation error on February 27, but failed to start telling those affected until March 16. This only happened after WalesOnline had approached the health board with quotes from a whistleblower who felt the failings were being “kept quiet”. Politicians have condemned the “scandalous” delay.
Karen and Lee described the delay as “disgusting” and pointed out that patients could have unknowingly passed on the potential infections in that time. “They knew about this weeks ago and we feel they tried to cover it up,” said Lee, 47, who runs a double-glazing business.
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“If it wasn’t for the whistleblower, would we have ever known?” said 46-year-old Karen. “They need to be more transparent with us. We need to know exactly how these errors happened.”
The Williamses’ phone call with the hospital on Wednesday left them reeling. “I couldn’t process it,” said Karen. “I was thinking, ‘How do I tell Ieuan this?’ This is not something a 15-year-old should have to worry about.”
She remembered the delivery man putting a mask on before approaching their door, and wondered if this was because he considered her son an infection risk – despite the health board waiting three weeks to act.
After coming home from his school, Cwmbran High, on Wednesday, Ieuan was informed of the situation by his parents. “I was quite scared at first,” he told us. “I’m going to have to go back and forth to the hospital for six months. They keep saying how low the risk is but I want to know for sure.”
On Thursday night, Ieuan went to the Royal Gwent for his first blood test. The family were also able to speak to some “brilliant” staff from the infection control team, said Lee.
The orthodontic department had fitted Ieuan with braces on February 25 because there were gaps in his teeth following a previous operation to remove a problematic tooth. On Thursday the family learned the unsterilised instruments put in his mouth during that 20-minute procedure were pliers – for cutting off the tail of the wire in his braces – and a mirror.
The health board says the instruments had been disinfected but, as WalesOnline first reported on Tuesday, they were not put in the autoclave – a machine that sterilises medical tools using heat and steam. When exposed to that heat, the tape on a set of instruments is designed to change colour. Staff are meant to check the colour change and the date of sterilisation before approving a tray for use, but did not do so. The only explanation given by the health board has been “human error”.
Ieuan will return to the hospital for another test in two months’ time, then another the month after that, and a final test in a further three months.
The family were deeply troubled when we told them what we had heard from another whistleblower, who contacted us with more information after we broke the initial story.
The source claimed higher-ups at the hospital’s sterilisation and decontamination unit (HSDU) had “refused to shoulder any sort of blame” or the possibility that the error stemmed from mismanagement or a lack of training.
They alleged: “There’s a training supervisor in place who is meant to oversee all the training of staff on site. However, it doesn’t work like this. It’s all allocated to the supervisors who work with a number of technicians in their group. There are meant to be annual refreshers in all areas but some people will just tick boxes and pretend to have done the training.
“The autoclave area is the most vital of the unit, but a member of staff can be taken away from that area to cover other areas at the drop of a hat.
“Staff have been threatened with the sack if they speak out about the failings and one manager has threatened there will be ‘payback’ if he catches who speaks to the media.
“The attitude from management is that it’s ‘yesterday’s news’. Managers have told the supervisors this is their issue and not a management issue. The supervisors have no morale whatsoever because of the way the unit is run and now they are having to deal with this.”
Lee was appalled to hear these claims, responding: “Human error happens, but this is about transparency, and saying, ‘We’ve made this mistake and we own it.’ This is not just about one person. This lies with the hospital and the people who run it. They need to make sure this never happens to anyone else.
“I hope that by us speaking to WalesOnline, more people who’ve been affected will see it and want to speak out too. It’s got to be brought to light.”
Karen added: “The staff are under so much pressure as it is. To be threatened with their jobs for speaking out is disgraceful. I’m very grateful to the whistleblowers.”
With waiting lists already so long, the family also feel it is unacceptable that an avoidable error has placed hospital resources under the further pressure of delivering multiple tests for each of the affected patients.
Responding to the claims of staff being threatened, a health board spokeswoman said: “We do not condone any threats to staff regarding disciplinary action on any issues. We have internal whistleblowing policies where we encourage people to come forward.
“We appreciate that sometimes staff may go external with their concerns, and this is disappointing as we believe we have an open and transparent culture within our organisation where staff should feel both able and empowered to come forward.”
Why did the health board give a statement suggesting all patients had been informed when Ieuan had not yet been? The spokeswoman replied: “Contact was attempted with all patients prior to releasing our statement but unfortunately in Ieuan’s situation, we were unable to get hold of his family and after numerous attempts a letter was hand-delivered the next day. We are truly sorry for the upset this has caused to Ieuan and his family.” (The only attempt the family are aware of is a call they missed from an unknown number.)
What explanation has been given for waiting until March 16 to start contacting patients? “We really needed to be sure we had an accurate list of patients and that we were only contacting those impacted,” said the health board. “We needed to be clear about what steps were taken to ensure their health needs are responded to.”
Asked if disciplinary action was being taken, medical director Dr Seema Srivastava replied: “We are conducting a full review. There’s nothing else I want to say about that at this stage.”
Plaid Cymru described the failings as “terrifying” and demanded a “fully transparent” investigation from the health board.
Lisa Dymock, Tory councillor for Portskewett, said: “It’s hard to understand how so many failings could happen at various levels without being properly addressed until they felt the pressure from the press… Answers [are] needed urgently.”
And Laura Anne Jones, Reform MS for South Wales East, said: “It’s scandalous that it’s taken three weeks for my constituents to be informed.”
The Welsh Government said: “We have been assured the health board is taking all precautionary measures to prevent incidents like this from happening again.”
If you have further information about this story, or any other issues we should be reporting on, you can contact us confidentially at [email protected]
Shortly after we reported on the sterilisation error, an anonymous petition was launched on Change.org calling for “an independent review of leadership and governance” at the health board.
It pointed to various failings from recent years, including the mixing-up of bodies in a mortuary and the death of nine-year-old Dylan Cope after he was sent home from hospital despite having a perforated appendix. You can view the petition here.
