Mould outbreak at infection scandal hospital upgraded to 'red' as Swinney accused of disrespecting relatives
John Swinney has denied disrespecting bereaved relatives from the hospitals infection scandal.
A mould outbreak at Glasgow’s infection scandal hospital has been upgraded to a “red” alert as John Swinney was accused of disrespecting grieving families.
Speaking at First Minister’ Questions, Mr Swinney denied he has not shown respect to the bereaved relatives of victims of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) scandal after coming under fire for failing to look at them sitting in the Holyrood chamber last week.
The row has emerged after the First Minister told MSPs that a cancer ward at the flagship hospital that was partially closed due to mould and dirty water ingress has had its infection incident alert level upgraded.
Mr Swinney said a red alert has now been issued for ward 4b at the super-hospital, but insisted the QEUH was safe for patients.
Sky News reported earlier this week that the ward was partially closed due to the incident.
Mr Swinney said the Scottish government was first told of an amber alert on the ward, which cares for bone marrow transplant patients, on Thursday February 26.
The SNP leader said the infection risk rating was upgraded due to “heightened public anxiety” and stressed that it was “not because of any increased risk of harm to patients”.
He added: “It is important that I put that on the record that, fundamentally, the clinical consensus is that the wards in question are safe.”
Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, claimed that Mr Swinney’s update “reveals the inconsistency at the heart of this government”.
“The government received 14 amber and red warnings before March 2018, but still took no action and denied that there were infection risks at the hospital”, he added.
“The First Minister now admits that amber and red warnings come to the government, so why were those ignored before 2018? People died as a result.
“Every step of the way this SNP government has attempted to misinform, deflect and deny.
“Progress has only ever been made when they have been backed into a corner, and even now they hide behind process rather than just tell the truth.”
Last week, the Scottish Labour leader urged Mr Swinney to establish an independent expert panel to look at individual cases where children were left with “lifelong, debilitating conditions” after receiving powerful anti-infection drugs from the hospital.
Mr Swinney repeated that he would consider the call but that he had to let the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry run its course.
Mr Sarwar brought those families to Holyrood to watch FMQs and meet with him last week.
The Scottish Labour leader said: “Last week in the chamber, John Swinney shamefully turned his back on families impacted by the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital scandal.
“Later today, he will finally meet them in an online Teams call. I hope that he will take the opportunity to apologise to them.”
But in response, Mr Swinney insisted that he “offered no disrespect to families last week”.
He added: “I was simply sitting in my chair, looking at Mr Sarwar and answering his questions.
“It is my duty to answer questions, and I did that. I simply say to Mr Sarwar that I have to give that matter my attention when I am answering questions in the parliament.”
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