Scandal-hit Glasgow hospital must publish latest patient safety reviews, says Sarwar | Scotland
The Scottish Government must publish up-to-date patient safety assessments for every ward at the super-hospital at the heart of the “worst scandal in the history of the Scottish Parliament”, Anas Sarwar has said.
The Scottish Labor leader was speaking alongside families of children and adults who died after contracting infections while undergoing cancer treatment on the campus of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow.
Friday is the final day of hearings in the six-year public inquiry ordered by former Health Secretary Jeane Freeman into the design and construction of hospitals launched after deaths linked to infections in the water supply and ventilation system.
They include Milly Main, 10, who died in August 2017 after contracting an infection while recovering from leukemia treatment, and Molly Cuddihy, 23, who died last August after giving evidence at the inquest in which she said: “I was made even sicker by the environment.”
Sarwar challenged the Scottish Government to “publish the validation document in full [patient safety review] of every service and unit on the QEUH campus”, as the inquest heard, there was “very little” to show that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde had learned from its mistakes.
The former shadow health spokesperson, who has campaigned for years with affected families, told reporters that First Minister John Swinney’s claim that the Scottish Government only became aware of problems at the hospital in March 2018 – despite internal reports raising concerns before it opened in April 2015 – was “not credible”.
This is “categorically wrong”, Sarwar said, as the acting health secretary must be immediately informed if a red warning is issued at a hospital, as was done in June 2017 at the QEUH. The fact that nothing was done “demonstrates criminal negligence or incompetence,” he said. Sarwar has previously called for an investigation into corporate manslaughter, in which the health board was named as a suspect, to be widened to include then-government ministers.
And, after the health board revealed earlier this week that the building was not ready to open but that “there was pressure to open…on time and on budget,” Sarwar said the question remained “who applied the pressure and why” — after an internal report weeks before the opening warned of a high risk of infection for immunocompromised children.
Also speaking at the news conference, Milly’s mother, Kimberly Darroch, said she was appealing directly to the health board to “finally do the right thing. Admit where, when and why it went wrong… We need to stop this from happening again.”
She said the Scottish Government’s inaction “has failed us and our children”. She thanked three senior doctors who described Thursday how they were belittled and fired by hospital management when they raised initial concerns about infection control problems with the new super-hospital’s water and ventilation systems.
“Thank you for showing courage, resilience and standing up for our children and loved ones when no one else would,” Darroch said.
Scottish Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “Evidence presented at the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry clearly indicates that the Scottish Government was only made aware of the issues at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus in March 2018.
“The government has brought forward the public inquiry so that the families – some of whom I have met and to whom I pay tribute for their work and diligence following the trauma they have undoubtedly experienced – can obtain answers to the questions they are asking.
“It is because we have launched a public inquiry that I believe we are getting to the truth, and it is right that Lord Brodie now has the space to consider all the evidence.”
