THE electrician who fitted the new £1 million MRI scanner at the General Hospital did such a shoddy job that patients could have been electrocuted inside, it has been revealed.

Fortunately, the UK sub-contractor was being supervised by Graeme Le Sueur, the engineer manager at Health, who noticed the faulty wiring and stopped the scanner becoming a death-trap, Health chiefs said today. As a result of Mr Le Sueur’s vigilance, the sub-contractor, Genesis Specialist Medical Services, checked other scanners fitted by its electrician and supervisor, Gary Smith (47). They allegedly discovered that he had failed to wire up an emergency ‘off’ button on a scanner at King’s College Hospital in London.

Allegations about the shoddy work of Mr Smith, from Dartford in Kent, came to light in London at an employment tribunal. Mr Smith, who was a supervisor at the firm on a salary of £38,000, is suing his old firm for unfair dismissal, claiming that it did not follow the correct procedures in sacking him.

Referring to the botched job at King’s College Hospital, Genesis managing director Steve Beels said: ‘It was poor workmanship. It could have killed someone. We were dealing with the NHS, and patients were involved. Speaking yesterday, Mike Le Fevre, the director of estates and hotel services at Health, praised the professionalism of Mr Le Sueur. He said that the discovery paid testament to the extremely thorough internal supervision over projects at the Hospital being undertaken by outside (and often overseas) contractors.

• Picture: Health’s engineer manager, Graeme Le Sueur, with the MRI scanner. He was the man who noticed the dangerous workmanship. Picture by Matthewe Hotton (00599923)