Health
Hundreds of uniforms discarded weekly in Dutch hospitals due to forgotten pens, UMC Utrecht issues appeal
Dutch hospitals discard hundreds of uniforms each week because pens left in pockets cause entire washing loads to be ruined with ink stains. The University Medical Center Utrecht (UMC Utrecht) has issued an urgent appeal to staff to check their jacket and trouser pockets before laundering, as a single pen can spoil up to fifty uniforms weekly. While the external laundry service CleanLease detects most foreign objects, pens remain a persistent issue affecting multiple institutions, including UMC Groningen and Leiden. Hospital managers emphasize that simple vigilance is necessary to reduce waste and costs amid existing shortages of materials and personnel.
Ozetta summarises; the reporting is the newsroom's