Freeman makes pledge that families ‘at heart’ of hospital investigation
Health secretary Jeane Freeman has pledged families will be “at the heart” of investigations into the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow.
A review was ordered after three patients died from infections linked to pigeon droppings and the water supply, including ten-year-old Milly Main.
It found aspects of the design, build, commissioning and maintenance of the hospital increased the risk to patients.
Milly’s mother Kimberly Darroch, 36, has said she believed her daughter’s death in August 2017 was “100 per cent” due to contaminated water, but she was “still in the dark” about it.
Scottish Labour MSP Anas Sarwar asked the health secretary for a “firm commitment that families will be the heart of the next stages, namely the clinical case review and the public inquiry”.
He said: “Success or failure will depend on getting answers for Milly’s parents and all the families affected.”
Ms Freeman said she was “very happy to give the member – Mr Sarwar – that assurance”.
Speaking in the Scottish Parliament yesterday, Ms Freeman welcomed the report’s findings, but acknowledged “for some of the families affected the report does not provide all the answers they rightly asked for”.
Paying tribute to whistleblowers who exposed problems at the £842 million hospital, Ms Freeman said: “I hope that it, the outcome of the independent case review, which is under way, and our response to both will assure them of the extreme seriousness with which I take their concerns.”
Ms Freeman told MSPS she will speak to Lord Brodie – the chairman of the public inquiry into the QEUH and the longdelayed Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh – this week and hopes to announce its start date soon. She said: “Lord Brodie has been keen from the very outset to understand how he can best engage with the families involved and I understand he intends to appoint a family liaison officer to the public inquiry to ensure that that happens.”
Mr Sarwar said after the exchange: “The review was a small step in the right direction, but it does sadly leave many unanswered questions.
“It is crucial that any process takes the families affected with them.
“I’m pleased the health secretary made a firm commitment that families will be at the heart of the next stages – namely the clinical case review and the public inquiry – and I will hold her to that promise on behalf of grieving parents.”