Gong for empty homes champion

A GLASGOW City Council officer has picked up two awards at a ceremony to recognise work being done to tackle empty homes in Scotland.

At the Howdens Scottish Empty Homes Champions of the Year Awards, Glasgow’s empty homes officer Alison McLavin picked up two gongs.

One was for a tenement flat on Gardner Street which lay empty since 1995.

And the second was for a house and cottage on Main Street, Baillieston which were also last occupied in 1995. The properties are believed to include Glasgow’s last remaining weaver’s cottage.

HEALTH Secretary Jeane Freeman has revealed she has yet to see the findings of an inquiry it is claimed took place into possible infections at a scandal-hit hospital.

In a statement to the Scottish Parliament about water contamination at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, Ms Freeman told MSPs that officials are “urgently seeking details” about a doctor-led investigation, that was allegedly carried out in 2017.

A whistle-blower has told Labour MSP Anas Sarwar that the internal investigation uncovered 26 cases of the infection stenotrophomonas in child cancer patients at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Glasgow – in addition to the 23 found by an official investigation.

Ms Freeman said she had not been told by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) about the clinician-led probe and was still waiting for the health board to give answers about what it may have found.

NHSGGC has refused to comment on the investigation raised by the whistle-blower, but has issued an apology to families for its poor communication.

Promising that all affected families will get “the answers they are entitled to”, Ms Freeman said: “The whistle-blower who came forward last week stated that an internal clinician-led within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde had identified additional cases of infection among paediatric cancer patients, including died in 2017.

“My officials are urgently seeking details of this review so we can fully understand the findings and what action the board took in response.”

Asked by Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP about this inquiry, Ms Freeman added: “That is the work that we are undertaking, to have that information from the board, to look at the review that was undertaken by those clinicians in 2017, to see what actions the board took.

“If we are unhappy or dissatisfied with any of that, then we will take action.”

Ms Freeman had opened her statement by expressing her “deepest sympathies” to the affected families and offered an apology, saying “they feel they have not had their questions answered”.

She said that the health board

achild who chairman and chief executive “needed to significantly improve their relationships with families involved” and said that any parents of children treated in the affected wards have since been contacted by NHSGGC with an offer to meet the health board bosses.

Ms Freeman defended the actions of the whistle-blower – following criticism of them by NHSGGC – and told MSPs Government officials would consider escalating action against the health board if not satisfied with their response to the scandal.

“I take very seriously the concerns highlighted to me about the deeply concerning issues that have been raised by a whistle-blower,” she said. “There is no room in our health service for anyone to criticise whistle-blowers, publicly or otherwise, or to put them in fear for the safety of their jobs.”