Fears over hospital move
Medics warned of safety risks to patients after switch from Yorkhill
DOCTORS at Glasgow’s leading children’s hospital feared their patients would be less safe when they moved into a new multi-million-pound building.
Minutes of meetings show almost 50 paediatric clinicians believed the services they could provide from their segment of the new Queen Elizabeth University Hospital would be worse than those they offered in their wellknown base at Yorkhill.
More than 40 said they thought the service at the new children’s hospital, which they moved to in June, would be less safe.
Dr Crispin Best, chairman of the Yorkhill Medical Staff Association (YMSA) which conducted the survey, said it was difficult to know now the move had taken place how safety compared in the new building as figures were not available.
However, he added: “I know that some of my colleagues are concerned about the levels of nurse staff in some areas.”
He also revealed there were concerns about noise levels in the main atrium where patients wait for outpatient appointments, saying it could be hard for people to hear their name being called.
Dr Best said some elements of the new building were good, such as the location of MRI scanners next to the operating theatres, and he praised the children’s hospital management for their hard work.
But, he said, there were extras which would have made life easier in the new building, now called the Royal Hospital for Children (RHC).
Dr Best said the location of staff offices a “seven to eight minute brisk walk from the hospital” was an issue. He said: “Consultants used to have their offices next to wards. If they were not doing something (for patients) they could do a bit of other work.”
It was the dislocation of office space which sparked a survey of medical staff about the new building just over a year ago.
Meeting minutes, obtained by The Herald under Freedom of Information Legislation, show 54 consultants (a little under half) took part. Of these 90 per cent thought the service they could provide in the new children’s hospital would be worse than that provided at Yorkhill and 80 per cent thought it would be less safe.
Frustration that staff concerns about the design of the new building were being ignored were also expressed by the Yorkhill Medical Staff Association ahead of the opening.
Minutes for September 2014 say: “The project team do not appear to understand how consultants work, and should shadow us while working to gain an understanding of this. These issues have been discussed for five years yet our concerns have been ignored.”
The distance to the office building is described as a “huge worry” and a shortage of meeting rooms is also raised.
Dr Best said: “The huge thing we lack here is we do not have our own canteen. There is nowhere for the children and staff to eat together... A lot of patient business got done around lunch, that simply does not happen now. Communication is worse than it used to be.”
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “Nurse staffing levels at the RHC have been set above the recommended Scottish Government levels.
“An assessment of staffing levels is made in each and every ward across NHS GGC daily to ensure that staffing levels are safe and appropriate for the particular patients being treated that day.”