Scandal-hit hospital given ‘one final chance’
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) will be given “one final chance” after an infections scandal at its flagship hospital campus.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said experts will review about 80 cases where children may have contracted infections at the Royal Hospital for Children (RCH) in Glasgow.
She also announced two paediatric cancer wards at the RCH that closed in 2018 will not reopen till this summer at the earliest.
Freeman, who recently escalated action against NHS bosses at Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said she had not ruled out taking the health board to level five – meaning it would be deemed to be “unable to deliver effective care” and requiring ministerial intervention.
A five-stage scale is used in Scotland to show the level of oversight for stricken health boards – NHSGGC is currently at stage four.
She issued the warning as she revealed a review of infections in the paediatric haemato-oncology ward at the children’s hospital since it opened in 2015 would examine about 80 cases.
The hospital is part of the £842million Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus, which Holyrood heard has been “plagued” by “complaints, crises and tragedies” since it opened in 2015.
Concerns continue about infections at the hospital, with the parents of 10-yearold Millie Main, whose death after beating cancer has been linked to an infection caused by contaminated water, demanding a fatal accident inquiry.
Freeman said it had been “an unnecessarily worrying time for families and for staff”.
She added: “I am giving Greater Glasgow and Clyde one final chance to respond appropriately and show they understand what they need to do here.”