Findings ‘will lead to upset’
BY VIVIENNE AITKEN HEALTH Secretary Jeane Freeman yesterday said she understood that families involved would be “concerned and distressed” by the findings of the report into the QEUH.
She said while the independent review found that while it now offers a high quality healthcare setting, the initial design didn’t adequately take into account the needs of some vulnerable patients.
Freeman commissioned the report after some patients contracted severe infections linked to issues with water quality and ventilation systems.
And she accepted that patients, staff and visitors with compromised immune systems were exposed to risks which could have been lower if the correct design, build and commissioning had taken place.
Freeman said: “The patients and families most affected by the issues raised in the report will be understandably concerned and distressed by some of the findings of the independent review.
“I have been clear that those who have been affected deserve answers to the many questions they are entitled to ask – and this review is an important step in delivering that.
“The report provides a wealth of information for the forthcoming public inquiry into the construction of the QEUH and the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh for which the remit and terms of reference have now been published. “In addition, an oversight board, led by Scotland’s chief nursing officer Fiona McQueen, will report on infection prevention and control practices at the hospital.”