A convicted sex offender has sparked fury over claims he threatened nurses while being treated at a busy hospital.
Complaints have been made over the prisoner making threats after being enraged over the choice of sandwiches at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
The Record has been informed that he visits the hospital three times a week for vital medical procedures and is treated in a room with up to seven other patients.
Although he is chained up going in and out of the hospital he is not handcuffed at the treatment room.
Now nurses and fellow patients have raised safety concerns after witnessing him threatening nurses.
One terrified patient said: “A nurse was recently told by the prisoner to expect a visit from a family member to ‘kick your **** in’ because his choice of sandwich filling had been unavailable from the tea trolley.
“No further action was taken - dismissed only as ‘oh yes, he does that now and then’.
“Anyone else would have rightly been prosecuted - there were plenty of witnesses.
The prisoner was convicted in 2018 is an inmate at Edinburgh’s Saughton Prison.
Although he is brought into Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in handcuffs and chains, when he is on the ward he is not restrained and able to move freely around the ward with two prison guards on duty at his bedside.
But concerned fellow patients were unaware of the nature of the prisoner's conviction and were shocked at his comments to a nurse.
One eye-witness said: “It may well be that he is well enough connected to have serious violence visited on others - nobody knows, certainly not the innocent members of the public forced to share treatment space and time with him and not even the NHS staff charged with treating him."
One patient who has received treatment on the same ward said: “I really cannot fathom how someone who warrants handcuff and chains to be transported somewhere could possibly be allowed to spend time with members of the public.
“He should be isolated - he was not imprisoned to be given 18 hours liberty a week.
“There are 156 days a year where a convicted and serving prisoner spends six hours with in a room of ill and often vulnerable members of the public, with no notification, no consultation, no restrictions and no agreement.”
Witnesses told how he regularly raises spurious concerns about his prison escorts - accusing them of failing in their duty to protect him from any possible attacks.
The witness continued: “Of course when this happens, the guards are required to pay attention.
“It is an absolute pantomime, all for his own entertainment and exercise of control.
“But the fix is actually very simple. The ERI has isolation rooms where the prisoner could be treated away from members of the public. His escorts could perform their duty by being posted at the room door instead of being his bedside entertainment.”
Sources claim nursing staff have made complaints to the Scottish Prison Service about his behaviour.
The wards where the prisoner receives treatment contain eight beds. There are also a number of single-bed isolation rooms but he is treated alongside other patients.
When he arrives he and his escort party go to a room which has seven other patients and up to 12 NHS staff members at any one time.
The witness said: “His escorts sit at his bedside exactly as though they were his visitors.
“Because it is an open, multi-patient room the prisoner is free to interact with the other patients in whatever way he wishes - welcoming them as they arrive, striking up conversation, wishing them goodnight etc.
“He also listens in to conversations between other patients and staff, often shouting across the room to ‘contribute’."
He said some patients in the room had purchased noise-cancelling headphones “specifically to shut out the incessant and unrelenting noise and chatter between the prisoner and his ‘visitors’”.
He added: “Everything is up for discussion; nothing appears to be off-limits. It goes both ways and it never stops.
“He takes the role of ‘mine host’ very seriously, organises chairs, asks nurses for pillows to make them more comfortable, orders tea from the refreshment trolley for his ‘guests’.
“In turn, they fetch him cups of water and occasionally hand him their mobile phone to look at - things that any concerned visitor would do for a friend receiving treatment.
“No-one else having dialysis can have someone with them, these are treatment rooms not wards”
A Scottish Prison Service spokesman refused to confirm or deny there had been complaints about the inmate. A SPS spokesman would only say: “We do not comment on individual prisoners.”
Tracey Gillies, Medical Director, NHS Lothian said: “We can’t comment or confirm individual cases without patient consent but we take the safety of all our patients extremely seriously. If any patient is concerned about their treatment or safety we encourage them to speak to us directly.
“We have a small number of single occupancy treatment rooms for dialysis at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. These are used for infection control reasons.”
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here .
