SNP ministers were kept in dark about infection risks at Queen Elizabeth Hospital

The Scottish Government was kept in the dark about secret reports exposing infection risks at the Queen Elizabeth hospital, Health Secretary Jean Freeman has confirmed.

By Scott Macnab Tuesday, 10th December 2019, 3:50 pm

Infection concerns at the Queen Elizabeth hospital were not passed onto to ministers

The SNP minister said it was "entirely unacceptable" that the reports were not passed on in a statement to MSPs at Holyrood. She admitted that patients should not have been moved into the troubled hospital after the water supply risks were highlighted in the reports carried out around the time of its opening.

It came as Ms Freeman appointed a new head of infection prevention and control at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde in a statement to MSPs yesterday to address concerns at the flagship hospital.

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Ms Freeman revealed yesterday that the report had never been shared with ministers.

"The non-sharing of those reports with Government and indeed - as I understand it - the non-sharing of the report in 2015 with board itself is entirely unacceptable," she told MSPs.

"When one looks at those reports, then action should have been taken in my opinion before patients and others moved into particular areas of that hospital - those patients and staff being those concerned with those particularly vulnerable groups of patients where infections that for the rest of us we manage, we probably don't even notice that we have them because our immune system works healthily and well. But these vulnerable cohort of patients of patients, these organisms are particularly dangerous and threatening to them."

She added that steps are now being taken to ensure that independent expertise is in place.

Infection control doctors also raised concerns over the bug stenotrophomonas in the water supply in August 2017 – just weeks before ten-year-old cancer patient Milly Main died after contracting it.

Her mother Kimberly Darroch has said she is “100 per cent” certain that dirty water had caused the infection.

Mr Sarwar said: “It is unforgivable that independent water reports carried out when the hospital opened in 2015 and again in 2017 were not shared with the Government.

“The water supply was deemed ‘high risk’ and the hospital should never have been allowed to open. This was a ‘super hospital’ in the First Minister’s own backyard.

“The Health Secretary must launch an urgent investigation into how this was allowed to happen; and heads must roll."

Ms Freeman also announced the appointment of Professor Marion Bain to take over infection prevention and control at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Professor Bain, Co-Director of the Delivery Group for Public Health Reform and former Medical Director of NHS National Services Scotland, will lead on improving systems, processes and governance.

Ms Freeman added: "An expert assessment of infection prevention and control in the clinical environment will also be carried out.