Safety nets installed after glass panel plunge drama at hospital
SAFETY nets have been installed at Glasgow’s £842million super-hospital following a series of dangerous incidents where glass panels have fallen from the building.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it had taken action for the safety of patients, visitors and staff a at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
UNION leaders have called on Glasgow’s health board to clarity the long term plan for what it described as a “significant fault in a new building.”
The health board said it is still not clear what has caused the problem but believe all the panels smashed before falling.
Pieces of the decorative panels have dropped from the hospital several times since it opened in 2015.
Union officials called on NHSGGC to outline the longterm plan to rectify what it described as a, “significant fault in a new building.”
In the latest incident, on August 9, a panel plunged 10 floors to the grounds. A mum of two told how shards of the shattered pane flew around her and her husband.
Similar incidents occurred last summer, when windows fell from the hospital in May and July.
A spokeswoman said: “It has not been possible to establish the cause of the decorative external glass panel shattering on August 9.
“The shattered pieces were not large enough to analyse and determine the cause.
“The safety of our patients, visitors and staff is our paramount priority, which is why we have installed safety netting where these panels are situated on the building.”
The hospital was designed by Nightingale Associates and constructed by Brookfield Multiplex, who previously built Wembley Stadium and has been plagued by problems since it opened.
The health board was forced to replay almost all the blinds in the hospital due to a fault.
Matt McClaughlin, of Unison Scotland said: “Whilst increased safety measures are of course welcome, Unison members and patients are rightly asking when NHSGGC will get to the bottom of this and if they ever intend to tell us why these glass panels keep shattering, who is to blame and what is to be done to rectify such a significant fault in a new building.”