NEW £150M CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL ‘UNFIT FOR PATIENTS’
NHS hit by fresh crisis over safety on wards
A £150million children’s hospital was branded ‘unfit for patients’ yesterday after its opening was cancelled over safety fears. At the last minute, NHS chiefs ditched plans to move into the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh.
Safety inspectors due to sign off the building found problems with the ventilation system, which could take months to fix.
Multiplex, the firm responsible for the building, has already been blamed for ‘botched’ work on Glasgow’s £1billion Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH).
Two patients – one a boy of ten – died at the QEUH in December after contracting Cryptococcus, a fungal infection linked to pigeon droppings. A third patient, 63-yearold Mito Kaur, died from another fungal infection, Mucor, in March.
The flagship QEUH complex is
now facing a review of its design, build, handover and maintenance following these and other problems, including bacteria found in the water supply of the children’s cancer ward.
Politicians last night described the latest scandal as ‘beyond belief’, coming only days before young patients were to be moved to the new building.
Scottish Tory mental health and public health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘It’s staggering that after years in the planning the new hospital is unfit for patients. The SNP spends every day demanding a new independence referendum. Why can’t it deliver on its promise to improve public services first?’
The NHS Lothian project was originally due to open in May but has been hit by a catalogue of setbacks.
Independent assessors said in January the children’s hospital had failed to meet specifications and could not be signed off as complete.
It was supposed to get its first patients next Tuesday, but they will now have to wait until ‘it is safe to do so’.
Scottish Labour health spokesman Monica Lennon said: ‘This is deeply distressing for the patients and staff who were due to move in today.
‘It is beyond belief that these serious safety failures were not raised well in advance of the opening day. Health Secretary Jeane Freeman must get a grip on this latest hospital scandal.’
Staff have been preparing for weeks in preparation to transfer from the old children’s hospital in Sciennes to the new site at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in Little France.
But an emergency meeting was called yesterday afternoon to announce the
‘Deeply distressing and beyond belief’
move would be delayed. The Scottish Government and NHS Lothian issued a statement saying the move had been cancelled to ‘protect patient safety’ after ventilation problems were found.
It said the decision was taken ‘following final safety checks which revealed the ventilation system within the critical care department requires further work to meet national standards’.
Miss Freeman said she was ‘disappointed and deeply concerned’ that the issues were not identified earlier.
The move had already been delayed several times, but staff and management were preparing to close the current hospital at the start of next week.
A hospital source said: ‘The boxes are packed and ready to go. People have gathered their paperwork and emptied their desks in full expectation of being in the new hospital on Tuesday.
‘The move-in date was confidently announced less than two months ago, so no one knows yet what the last-minute problem is with the move.
‘People are in a state of flux and it is the patients you have to feel sorry for, as they literally don’t know whether they are coming or going.’
The move was scheduled to take ten days, but no new date has been set.
Thomas Waterson, chairman of Unison Scotland’s health committee, said: ‘We are shocked this announcement has come at such a late stage.
‘The Scottish Government has spent years planning this move, so to have further delays, particularly at this late stage, for health and safety is simply unacceptable.’
Health Secretary Miss Freeman said: ‘It is vital that patient safety remains paramount, which is why I have asked the health board to stop all moves until assurances have been given that the new site is entirely compliant with the relevant health technical standards.
‘Departments within the hospital will move over on a phased basis as soon as it is safe to do so. While this issue has been caught by the final safety checks, I am disappointed and deeply concerned that this was not identified earlier.’ NHS body Health Facilities Scotland will now undertake an investigation.
NHS Lothian chief executive Tim Davison said: ‘We are extremely disappointed we cannot move as planned. But patient safety must always come first.’