SNP forced to hold public inquiry into crisis-hit hospitals
SAFETY concerns at two crisishit Scottish hospitals will be probed at a public inquiry.
Following weeks of pressure, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman yesterday announced the investigation into issues at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh and the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
A director has been appointed to oversee the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, which was due to open this summer but has been delayed until autumn 2020.
Final checks revealed parts of the ventilation system in the critical care unit did not meet national standards.
NHS Lothian is paying £1.35million a month for the delayed hospital, with the final bill for taxpayers expected to reach £42million, including the cost of rectifying the problems.
A separate investigation into construction standards at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) is already under way after the deaths of three patients who contracted rare infections, including a ten-year-old boy.
There have also been several infections, linked to the water supply, among child cancer patients.
The public inquiry, which opposition parties have been demanding for weeks, will determine how ‘vital issues relating to ventilation and other key building systems occurred’, and what can be done to prevent similar problems happening with future hospital builds.
Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘This announcement is long overdue and has only come about because the SNP hierarchy has become fed up of negative headlines.
‘The ongoing problems at both hospitals are consequences of SNP negligence of the NHS which has gone on for more than a decade.’ He added: ‘It is now vital that the public inquiry reports as soon as possible and considers the decisions taken around these projects.’
Labour health spokesman Monica Lennon, said: ‘A public inquiry is the only way to get to the bottom of this outrageous series of errors which has seriously disrupted patient care and cost taxpayers millions of pounds.
‘We have two hospitals built by the same contractor that are mired in controversy, and all the while patients are suffering.
‘The public need to know the truth of what has gone so badly wrong at these two vital hospitals.’
Yesterday Miss Freeman said: ‘The safety and wellbeing of all patients and their families is my top priority and should be the primary consideration in all NHS construction projects.
‘I want to make sure this is the case for all future projects, which is why, following calls from affected parents, I am announcing a public inquiry.
‘Recent reports into the new Edinburgh children’s hospital will provide a significant amount of the underpinning evidence for the inquiry alongside the ongoing independent review into the delivery and maintenance of the QEUH.
‘The situation is not one anyone would choose, but it is one I am determined to resolve.’
Both hospital sites were built by the same global construction company, Multiplex.
In January this year it emerged that two patients, including a ten-year-old boy undergoing cancer treatment, had died at the £842million QEUH after contracting a fungal infection linked to pigeon droppings.
A third patient died after developing a separate fungal infection some weeks later.
Meanwhile, the new £150millon children’s hospital in Edinburgh has been dogged by delays over health concerns.
Miss Freeman halted its planned opening in July after it was discovered that the ventilation system in critical care did not meet national standards.
This stemmed from an error in a document produced by NHS Lothian during the tendering stage in 2012.
‘An outrageous series of errors’