‘Culture of intimidation’ at scandal-hit superhospital
A CULTURE of ‘bullying and intimidation’ at a scandal-hit health board is leaving staff fearful of speaking out, it is claimed.
Nicola Sturgeon was yesterday urged to sack senior management at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) immediately.
The First Minister was also warned she ‘must’ put the board under direct ministerial control after removing the bosses.
Miss Sturgeon is facing accusations that her Government is ‘unwilling’ to use emergency powers to ‘save lives’, despite using them at another health board following a financial scandal.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has written to Miss Sturgeon over the scandal at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow. It comes amid controversy about infections at the hospital after it was linked to the deaths of two more children.
Speaking at Holyrood on Thursday, Mr Sarwar told Miss Sturgeon that a child cancer patient who died had aspergillus infection.
The youngster had been treated on the same ward at the same time as Andrew Slorance, a senior Scottish Government official who died last year after contracting aspergillus while being treated for cancer.
Mr Sarwar added that more recently, a child in the paediatric hospital died after acquiring a similar waterborne infection to that linked with the death of schoolgirl Milly Main in 2017.
In a letter to the First Minister, Mr Sarwar said: ‘You must sack the chairman and chief executive at NHSGGC, sack the oversight board and put the hospital under direct ministerial control. More families should not have to pay the price for your Government failing to do the right thing.’
He added that former health secretary Shona Robison had placed NHS Tayside into ‘special measures’ and the board’s chief executive and chairman were replaced amid concerns over improper use of funds. Mr Sarwar told Miss Sturgeon: ‘My concern is that while your Government has seen fit to use these powers over financial mismanagement, you are unwilling to act when they could save lives.’
He insisted: ‘People are still dying from preventable hospital-acquired infections.
‘A culture of bullying and intimidation at the board continues to leave staff fearful of speaking out. The leadership at the health board, and the oversight board put in place by your Government, have failed.’
Miss Sturgeon has already said that ‘sacking a health board does not change overnight the practice in a hospital’.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf was asked yesterday if he had confidence in the NHSGGC board.
He said: ‘Yes, because I know how important and what a priority the leadership at Greater Glasgow and Clyde put on infection and control.
‘I know how seriously they take cases, whether they are raised by Mr Sarwar or raised by individual patients.’
A spokesman for NHSGGC said: ‘Our absolute aim is to deliver the best quality of care to patients.
‘For continued claims to be made that we are less than fully open and transparent is of serious concern... when issues or concerns are raised, we will continue to address them in a constructive and robust manner.’