Why deaths of 34 patients at Vale of Leven hospital should have helped prevent QEUH infection scandal
As late as January 2018, Shona Robison accused Anas Sarwar of ‘talking down our first-class state-of-the-art hospital’ when he raised constituents’ concerns about Queen Elizabeth University Hospital
Last week I wrote about the tragic deaths of patients from infections in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) and the question of whether the hospital was opened too early due to political pressure.
This was denied by John Swinney – but notes from Scottish Government meetings in 2019 and 2020 obtained by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar suggest otherwise. These stated the health board felt "political pressure" and "no consideration was given to delaying the opening of the hospital despite the issues being faced with completion and operation".
The SNP government would not be the first to want to cut the ribbon on a new and shiny building. But what’s more damning is how little action was taken when it became clear that something had gone wrong.
READ MORE: John Swinney told to release QEUH files in full as SNP minister accused of 'criminal negligence'
Vale of Leven infection scandal
That hospital infections can be deadly should not have been a surprise to any senior ministers at that time. In the Vale of Leven hospital in my constituency, clostridium difficile was found to be a contributory factor in at least 34 patients’ deaths between 2007 and 2008.
An inquiry, chaired by Lord MacLean, published its report in November 2014, six months before QEUH opened. That same month, Nicola Sturgeon appointed Shona Robison Health Secretary. Initially, she seemed to take the MacLean Report’s findings seriously. Apologising to those affected, she accepted all 75 recommendations and pledged to “go further where we can”.
The recommendations couldn’t have been more relevant. Part of Robison’s brief was to provide oversight of Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s transfer of hospital services across the city to QEUH.
In February 2015, I asked whether, in light of the Vale of Leven inquiry, an independent audit of the new hospital had been carried out. After some pressing, Robison said: “If it has not taken place, it will. We will check that.”
In April 2015 – the same month that whistleblower Dr Christine Peters raised her concerns internally about QEUH’s design – Robison wrote to me claiming there was no need for an independent audit or to follow the MacLean recommendation because there was robust monitoring and reporting in place.
Red warnings issued
Indeed, in direct response to the Vale of Leven scandal, the Scottish Government had introduced a healthcare infection incident assessment tool (HIIAT), with the Cabinet Secretary automatically being notified if there was a red warning.
That meant that in June 2017, when a HIIAT red warning was issued at QEUH, Robison would have been informed. In fact, the SNP government was alerted to 14 serious infection outbreaks in the QEUH in the three years after it opened. Yet they failed to act.
It was as if the SNP could not acknowledge there were problems at the super hospital – as late as January 2018, Robison accused Sarwar of “talking down our first-class state-of-the-art hospital” when he raised constituents’ concerns.
Remarkably, Robison has not appeared before the inquiry to answer questions about what she knew and when. That’s why Scottish Labour is calling for Robison and other senior SNP ministers to testify.
The SNP government owes it not just to the QEUH families but to my Vale of Leven constituents to make sure such a tragedy never happens again. This time, lessons need to be learned.
Jackie Baillie MSP is Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson
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