Exclusive:Wes Streeting: SNP has 'really serious' questions to answer on hospital scandal

Health Secretary Wes Streeting told The Scotsman the nationalists have “not given a full or convincing account” on why the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital was opened before it was safe to do so.

His comments come after First Minister John Swinney insisted the hospital was safe despite the infection incident alert level in a cancer ward being upgraded to red after it was partially closed due to mould and dirty water.

Speaking to The Scotsman, he said: “It’s not for me to come up here and make pronouncements on the safety of the hospital today, that’s the responsibility of the health secretary in the Scottish Government.

“What I will say is that having followed this scandal, I think the SNP have got really serious questions to answer because as I see it, it looks very much like the hospital was opened before it was safe to spare political blushes and because the government wanted to say it was on time and on budget.

“I’m sorry, but patient safety has always got to come first and it should certainly come before Bparty politics.

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“I think the SNP has not given a full or convincing account as to how it was that the hospital was opened when it was evidently not safe enough.”

On Thursday Mr Swinney said the red alert issued at the hospital was due to “heightened public anxiety” rather than because of an increased risk of harm to patients. The First Minister also said he was “confident” the wards in question were safe.

Since the beginning of the year it has emerged that the super-hospital opened too early, and that deaths at the hospital were linked to contaminated water infections.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar previously branded it “the biggest scandal in the history of the Scottish Parliament”.

Mr Streeting made the comments during a visit to Edinburgh University’s Institute of Regeneration and Repair at the city’s BioQuarter.

During his visit he criticised the SNP’s record on healthcare, saying measures to bring down waiting lists are “too little, too late”.

The SNP government had previously vowed that no one will wait over 12 months for a new appointment as of this month, however the latest statistics suggests this promise is likely to be broken.

Mr Streeting said: “The SNP really do remind me of the Tories - this is the same move we saw from Rishi Sunak towards the end, desperately trying to shift the goalposts, desperately trying to throw money at it to see if they can get the waiting lists down a bit before the election.

“The hope that people will forget their abysmal record is the same pattern of behaviour.”

Mr Streeting also branded the roll-out of an NHS app in Scotland “embarrassing”.

Currently a pilot app is being trialled for dermatology patients at NHS Lanarkshire, however a similar app for patients in England has existed for a number of years, allowing people to deal with appointments and test results from their phone.

Earlier this week Sir Tony Blair’s think tank claimed the SNP government’s refusal to use English technology has contributed to its slow roll-out north of the border.

Mr Streeting said: “I thought the Tories were going at a snail’s pace with the roll-out of the NHS app in England, but compared to the SNP they look like Olympic sprinters.

“I am sitting here north of the border and unless I’ve got a skin complaint in Lanarkshire, the NHS app is not there for me. Yet in England, 22 million patients are using it to manage their appointments and we’ve cut 1.7 million missed appointments.

“I don’t care that the NHS app was created and developed under the Conservatives because we’re building on it and expanding it, using that foundation.

“The SNP could have done the same by working with the UK Government, but we know they didn’t for no other reason than their narrow nationalist agenda and I don’t understand why the SNP put that kind of narrow partisan politics ahead of patients.”

When asked if the NHS app in England could be expanded to include Scotland, he said: “That’s a decision for the Scottish Government but they’ve shown no interest.

“There’s a real opportunity for a Scottish Labour government and a UK Labour government to work well together like I’ve been working with Welsh Labour.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “Ministers brought forward the public inquiry so that families and patients can get the truth they deserve.

“It is right that Lord Brodie is given the time and space to reach his conclusions without political influence or interference.

“Our priority is to ensure that patients, families, staff and the public have full confidence in the safety of facilities and the environment in which services are delivered within the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and Royal Hospital for Children.”