HEALTH Secretary Jeane Freeman has said a review which prompted NHS chiefs to take legal action against the contractors that built Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital complex must be published as soon as possible.
Freeman revealed she had instructed NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to consider if the documents could be published in part.
She spoke out after NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde confirmed it was starting court proceedings against construction firm Brookfield Multiplex amid infection concerns.
Last week health board chief executive Jane Grant revealed lawyers had been instructed to prepare legal action against contractor Brookfield Multiplex “as a matter of urgency”. She said the findings of a review to address building concerns could not be published yet – but would be made public when possible.
Freeman told The National’s sister paper, The Herald, she had asked the board “to clarify when their lawyers think they could publish the report, and whether or not their lawyers think they could publish the report in part”. And she stated: “My very clear view is that you need to publish it as soon as you can.”
Concerns about the water supply at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital were raised after 10-year-old Milly Main died having contracted an infection in August 2017.
But NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has clarified the deaths of two further patients at the Royal Hospital for Children – which is part of the same site – were not linked to infections at the hospital. One child who died had contracted an infection in the community, while in a second case the infection was not related to the cause of death.
A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “Our sympathies go to the families who have been affected by the heartbreak of losing a child and we are absolutely committed to supporting families who have faced such a tragedy. As part of our infection control governance processes we update the board on our performance against healthcare associated infection standards.”
The spokeswoman added that an incident management team had examined the cases and “the team determined that one infection was community acquired and that the cause of death in the second case was unrelated to the infection”.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde was escalated to stage four of the NHS Board Performance Framework by Freeman last month – the second highest level of Scottish Government intervention – following its response to an infection scandal.
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