Glasgow health board to take legal action over crisis hospital

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has instructed legal action be taken against a private contractor involved in building the crisis-hit Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

Health board bosses have recommended starting court proceedings against construction firm Brookfield Multiplex amid infection concerns and in the wake of children dying in the hospital.

At an NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHS GGC) board meeting yesterday, chief executive Jane Grant revealed lawyers have been instructed to prepare legal action against the contractor “as a matter of urgency”.

Papers seen by the PA news agency, which the health board failed to publish ahead of the meeting, recommend board members “accept the legal advice received and require the chief executive to instruct

Macroberts LLP to act on the board’s behalf to raise appropriate court proceedings as a matter of urgency.”

Responding to news of the legal action, Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour MSP for Glasgow, said: “At the heart of this scandal is not a contractual arrangement, but a catalogue of failings and a cover-up by hospital managers which led to a child losing their life.”

NHS GCC was escalated to stage four of the NHS Board Performance Framework by Health Secretary Jeane Freeman last month following its response to the infection scandal, with two children believed to have died in an affected ward in 2017.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said: “The decision to take legal action is entirely a matter for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board.”