Infection-hit city superhospital faced communication ‘challenges’
COMMUNICATION between infection control experts and maintenance managers at a Glasgow hospital where several patients died was not good, MSPs were told.
An inquiry into infections in Scotland’s hospitals was launched after two patients died at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH), having contracted an infection linked to pigeon droppings.
Giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee, Alastair Delaney, the director of quality assurance at Healthcare Improvement Scotland, said that there were systemic problems in relationships and governance at the QEUH.
Mr Delaney was quizzed on the problem after it was highlighted in a recent report by HIS inspectors, who described “challenges” in the relationship between the estates department and the infection control team at the hospital, and a backlog of some 300 repairs.
Mr Delaney said: “It was a feature of what we found in the QEUH and its associated sites. It’s also something that we would be concerned about across the country as a whole because it is absolutely essential that there is good working relationships between the nursing staff, particularly for infection control, and the buildings staff.
“Obviously in that particular circumstance, we had quite a large backlog of repairs to be done and the communication was not particularly great about how
‘‘ We had quite a large backlog of repairs to be done and the communication was not particularly great
those were being managed and what happened when they were being reported and potentially having to be reported again.
“So it demonstrated that that level of leadership governance was really important.
“The benefit for us in that inspection was that we were able to stand back and look at that, and it became a key feature because the frontline staff were doing as good a job as they could in the circumstances and we give praise to them in the actual report.
“Some of the problems were more systemic - about governance and relationships.”
MSPs were also told that the number of spot checks carried out by hospital inspectors will increase later this year.
Mr Delaney said HIS had hired three new inspectors in the past three weeks, and was in the process of advertising to fill additional vacancies.
It comes after previous concerns that half of Scotland’s hospital’s had never been checked for safety and cleanliness by the watchdog.