Widow slams FM over lack of action

Humza Yousaf has been accused of failing to act on spying revelations at Scotland’s largest health board.

The First Minister said he was “disturbed” when the Sunday Mail revealed NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) had been spying on Louise Slorance’s social media a f t e r he r husband Andrew died in their care. But , de - spite condemning their actions in Holyrood, records obtained by us show Yousaf made no attempt to contact health board bosses.

Louise, 47, has been a vocal critic of the health board after she discovered Andrew had contracted an infection while at the crisis-hit Queen El izabeth University Hospital waiting for a bone marrow transplant but she was not told until she saw his medical notes after his death.

We revealed in May that NHSGGC had paid a private company £14,000 a year to conduct online spying – called “social listening” – on Louise and a range of politicians as well as other people discussing the organisation online.

A Freedom of Information request to the Scottish Government asking for all correspondence about the scandal revealed just two emails – neither were from Yousaf or his team. They came from the nursing directorate in the Scott ish Government, asking NHSGGC what social listening tools they used and how much it cost.

Louise said: “This FOI shows the First Minister’s disgust at NHSGGC was little more than lip service. It is clear the Scottish Government stands side by side with the health board.”

Scottish Labour leader Anas

Sarwar said: “It defies belief that the Scottish Government hasn’t done a thing to challenge NHSGGC over the use of taxpayer money to spy on Louise Slorance.

“When the cameras were rolling, the First Minister claimed to be disturbed by this shameful snooping but his actions tell a different story.”

The Scottish Government said: “As set out in the FOI response, the Scottish Government contacted NHSGGC for further detail following the original media reports and this was provided. NHSGGC previously confirmed it has apologised to Mrs Slorance and is no longer monitoring her social media accounts.”