Every minute risks another QEUH death, warns widow
●‘This is not transparency, this is not honesty,’ says Louise Slorance
The widow of a top Scottish Government official who died at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow has claimed a lack of action from Nicola Sturgeon is risking more lives.
Louise Slorance also said the lack of information provided to the family was to prevent damaging the reputation of the hospital.
She urged the First Minister to act urgently to prevent hospital infection deaths, warning that similar incidents could occur again unless immediate action is taken.
Ms Slorance said she did not accept the response from Nicola Sturgeon in Holyrood about her husband’s care or the conduct of staff at the hospital, which is central to an ongoing public inquiry.
Her husband Andrew, who worked in the Scottish Government’s response and communications unit and was at the heart of the government’s response to Covid-19, died after contracting the virus while at the QEUH for cancer treatment.
On Thursday, Ms Slorance accused the health board of concealing information about his care, including the fact he tested positive for a life-threatening fungal infection, and blamed the hospital for his contraction of Covid.
At First Minister’s Questions, Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish Government would “not tolerate cover-ups or secrecy” and said her officials were seeking more information on the case.
But Ms Slorance said she rejected the comments from the First Minister and from the health board.
She said: “We have lost Andrew forever, but we need to prevent what happened to him happening to others. Every minute the First Minister
waits to take action on the QEUH risks more families having to endure what we, and many other families, have gone through. Action needs to be taken now.
“I do not accept the responses given yesterday and nor do I accept the claims from the health board that they were honest with us.
“To date I have received three batches of medical notes over a 10-month period, and I still have no information as to why Andrew was moved from preventative anti-fungal treatment to active treatment in mid-november.”
She added: “The health board claim they have been open and honest. Was it open and honest to have told me while my husband was dying that there was “potential for additional infection” when the medical notes I only saw after Andrew’s death revealed that tests had confirmed aspergillus three days before this, and that treatment had had to be escalated? This is not transparency, this is not honesty and it will not stop these type of events happening in the future.
“As has become clear to me since Andrew’s death, the health board are selective in the information they provide.
“I ask that all information
shared with Scottish Government regarding Andrew’s case is shared immediately with myself, including the aspergillus case review which despite requests is yet to be shared with me.”
Mr Slorance’s cause of death was recorded as Covid pneumonia, although he had been treated for the infection caused by a fungus called aspergillus, which his widow claims was not discussed with either of them during his hospital stay after she discovered the treatment after requesting his medical records. .
The alleged issues at the QEUH has been raised multiple times by Anas Sarwar at Holyrood, including the case of Millie Main who died after contracting a rare bacterial infection which officials admitted was “probably” caused by the hospital.
A public inquiry is underway to investigate the construction of the QEUH campus in Glasgow
and the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People and Department of Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh.
The inquiry was ordered after patients at the Glasgow hospital died from infections linked to pigeon droppings and the water supply, and the opening of the Edinburgh site was delayed due to concerns over the ventilation system.
In Holyrood on Thursday during First Minister’s Questions, he called the scandal at the QEUH the worst of the devolution era and called on Nicola Sturgeon to take action.
Mr Sarwar said there was a culture of “cover-up, denial, and families being failed” in the hospital.
Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour's health spokesperson, repeated calls for the First Minister to demand the resignation of NHSGCC’S leadership. She said: “The very least the First Minister could do is take action to make sure the ongoing risk is dealt with and future patients are spared their torment.
“These failings happened on Nicola Sturgeon’s watch. She was health secretary when the hospital was commissioned and built and she was First Minister when it was opened.
“She cannot hide behind the process of a public inquiry to avoid taking action now to make this hospital safe. To honour the work of people like Louise she must rebuild trust in the wake of a culture of cover-up, secrecy and denial. A good place to begin that work would be to finally demand the resignation of the leadership at Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board.”
Responding, a spokesperson for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said they urged Mrs Slorance to meet with them to discuss her husband’s care.
They said: “Our thoughts and sincere condolences are with the family and loved ones of Mr Slorance and we are sorry that any questions they have around his care have further added to their grief.
"Mrs Slorance is asking a number of questions that, due to patient confidentiality, would not be appropriate to discuss in the media.
"Wewouldurgemrsslorance and her family to meet with us to discuss the care provided and address the issues they have raised.
"We hope, by meeting, this will help to provide some comfort to the family at this time and will reassure them of our commitment to openness and transparency with all our patients and their families.”
Mr Slorance was first diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma in 2015, but the disease had recently returned. He had been due to undergo a stem cell transplant, but the procedure was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
He wrote a popular blog about his battle with the disease and raised a significant amount of money for cancer charities – most recently a 300mile cycle challenge, which he undertook just months before his death.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Our thoughts continue to be with Andrew’s family, and everyone in Scotland who is grieving the loss of a loved one. As the First Minister told parliament yesterday, we are determined that any concerns are properly investigated, and have tasked the board to do everything possible to ensure that Andrew’s family get the answers they are seeking.
“We will be establishing an external review process so that this matter is fully and properly investigated, not least to provide any necessary recommendation for actions that may be necessary.”
the role, after failing his final interview for the job – with the interview panel saying he was “not appointable”.
However, while the panel can make recommendations, the decision is in the hands of the Westminster government. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers over television, radio, telecoms and postal services, dealing with licensing and complaints.
The letter has been signed by the Scottish Government’s Culture Secretary Angus Robertson and Finance and Economy Secretary Kate Forbes and the Welsh Government’s Deputy Minister for Arts Dawn Bowden and Deputy Minister for Climate Change Lee Waters.
It says both governments are “extremely concerned about the perceived lack of impartiality and transparency of the current appointment processes at Ofcom”.
It said: “We regret that UK processes including public appointments being run by your department are failing to show due respect for the role and rights of the devolved governments. Another public appointment process in which we have a role is that of appointing the Nations’ members to the BBC board.
The manner in which these appointments are being conducted is also falling below the standards we expect. There has been an unreasonable and unexplained delay, for instance, in the appointment of the BBC Scotland member.”
The letter adds: “Given the importance of public service broadcasting to our nations and the real impact for our nations of any decision on selecting the Ofcom chair which is not transparent or impartial, we urge you to
involve us fully in the process as is right to protect a system which is so important to the public in Scotland and Wales and all the UK.”
Former rail regulator Sir Tom Winsor, Conservative former culture minister Lord Vaizey and Maggie Carver, Ofcom's deputy chair, were also believed to have been in the running for the job; however, it was long considered that Mr Dacre, who was editor of the Daily Mail for 25 years, was the preferred candidate of Mr Johnson.
Julian Knight, the chair of the culture select committee and a Conservative MP, said previously that the recruitment process was being restarted without adequate justification and that Dacre should not be allowed to reapply. “Where a previous candidate has been deemed to be unappointable for a post, they should be ruled out of reapplying,” he said.