The shocking missed warnings in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital infection deaths scandal
The Scottish Government must act now to ensure that our hospitals are safe for patients and the families of those who died receive justice
In 2017, ten-year-old Milly Main's cancer treatment seemed to be going as well as could be hoped. After a successful stem-cell transplant, she was making a good recovery in Glasgow’s new Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
What Milly's family did not know was the Hickman line administering drugs into her body was infected. She went into toxic shock, and died a month later.
Infections sometimes happen in hospitals, despite the staff’s best efforts. But Milly's case was a preventable tragedy.
In 2018, it emerged three children were being treated for infections possibly linked to bacteria in the water. Child cancer patients were then moved from two wards due to water supply problems.
In 2019, the health board admitted two patients, a 10-year-old boy and a 73-year-old woman, had died after contracting a fungal infection caused by pigeon droppings.
Police are now investigating the deaths of seven patients thought to have acquired infections at the QEUH. Many more may have been infected and survived.
The NHS board denied there was a problem with its water system for years, but this month finally accepted it probably did cause infections in child cancer patients.
Dr Christine Peters, a consultant microbiologist who was the infection control doctor when the QEUH opened, had immediately raised her concerns about the safety of the building's design, including water drainage and ventilation. She was joined in her concern by two other whistleblowers.
An inspection report, published the same month the building opened, warned there was a "high risk" of water-related infections. Further reports found there had been "no significant water system alterations" despite the warnings.
After nearly a decade of fighting for answers, the families of those who died want justice.
The Scottish Government is desperate to blame the health board, and some of that is absolutely deserved but they have questions to answer too.
In its statement to the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “Pressure was applied to open the hospital on time and on budget, and it is now clear that the hospital opened too early. It was not ready.”
So who exactly might have put this alleged pressure on the hospital? It wasn’t the staff or the health board. But the SNP government would have been keen to have it opened weeks before a general election.
In contrast to the bravery of the whistleblowers and the families who campaigned for the truth, the last week has been an unedifying merry-go-round of powerful people with large salaries claiming ignorance and blaming each other.
Yet when QEUH opened, the then First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, proudly took credit and used it to illustrate the SNP’s commitment to the NHS. Remember she was the one that launched a ferry with painted-on windows as a demonstration of her commitment to shipbuilding.
Let me spell it out – the Scottish Government is ultimately accountable for what happens in our hospitals. Even today, there are wards in the QEUH where the ventilation remains unvalidated, and the air-change rate is below that recommended.
The Scottish Government must act now to ensure that our hospitals are safe for patients. And families must be told who, if anyone, applied pressure to open this hospital and when.
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