The slip of the pen that helped cost you £90MILLION
Kids’ hospital was delayed by spreadsheet typo
SCOTLAND’S flagship children’s hospital was delayed because a mistake in a spreadsheet was not picked up, a review has found.
The opening was halted last year after final checks revealed that the ventilation system within the critical care department of the new building did not meet standards.
The Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh was due to open in July last year but Health Secretary Jeane Freeman halted the move from the existing site after the find.
A major review has found a spreadsheet created in 2012 contained a critical mistake about air quality.
The study, by auditor Grant Thornton, put this down to ‘human error’ but said there was a ‘collective failure’ by NHS Lothian and its contractors to rectify it as the project progressed. The original £150million bill for the build has spiralled by a further £90million.
Tory health spokesman Donald Cameron called it ‘staggering’ that a mistake on a spreadsheet had ‘delayed the opening of this major hospital’.
He added: ‘It must be one of the most costly errors in the history of the NHS in Scotland. It is one thing for someone to have made this mistake in the first place, but it is all the more shocking that it wasn’t spotted for so long.
‘Why did no one realise the error sooner? Who was monitoring the project? What Government oversight was there?’
The spreadsheet stated the air change rate in critical care rooms should be four changes per hour, rather than the standard of ten which is required for vulnerable patients.
The review said this appeared to be ‘human error in copying across the four-bedded room generic ventilation criteria into the critical care room detail’.
The settlement signed by NHS Lothian in February 2019 ‘cemented the error contractually’.
The probe said: ‘Our review identified a collective failure from the parties involved. It is not possible to identify one single event which resulted in the errors as there were several contributing events.’
A determining factor was the decision, taken in 2010, to have 20 four-bedded rooms.
Three were designed within critical care and required different ventilation but ‘this was missed from the outset of the project and remained unidentified until June 2019’.
Lib Dem health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton said: ‘It’s unbelievable how much money has been wasted in this project because of sloppy management, systemic failings and poor oversight. This must be up there as one of the most expensive typos in history.’
Calum Campbell, chief executive of NHS Lothian, said that in the wake of the review ‘recommendations in relation to decision-making, clarity, clinical engagement and involvement of external advisers have been made’. He added: ‘Some areas identified have already been addressed and others will be implemented within the agreed time frames to ensure future capital projects will benefit.’
The Scottish Government said that a public inquiry was under way to help ‘understand issues’ at the Edinburgh hospital and at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow
A spokesman said the inquiry would ‘make recommendations to ensure that any past mistakes are not repeated in future NHS infrastructure projects’.
‘Systemic failings and poor oversight’
THE continuing controversy over the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh is an object lesson in public sector incompetence.
It had been due to open in July last year but the launch was delayed over fears about ventilation problems.
Now we learn a mistake in a spreadsheet created before building started in 2012 went undetected – until it was too late.
A damning report by auditors blamed ‘human error’ and concluded there had been a ‘collective failure’ by NHS Lothian and its contractors.
The cost of the project has soared by £90million, but there are other repercussions beyond the consequences for the public purse. With this state-of-theart facility out of bounds for needy youngsters, children have also suffered as a result of a catalogue of blunders.
It is a shameful saga of gross ineptitude by NHS managers and those who were supposed to be checking every detail of a large and complex project.
Yet, whatever the problems among NHS bosses and the construction experts – and it’s obvious there were many – ministerial oversight was sorely lacking.
A forthcoming public inquiry is likely to lead to more depressing disclosures about botched management.
But it must also identify the failings of the politicians who promised a world-class hospital that has yet to materialise.