Now police investigate deaths of three children at scandal-hit hospital
Flagship site ‘should have been declared a crime scene’
‘Health board should be punished for all of this’
POLICE have launched an investigation into the deaths of three children at Scotland’s flagship £842 million superhospital.
Officers are also probing the circumstances surrounding the death of an elderly woman as part of a potential criminal investigation.
The children include Milly Main, ten, who died on a cancer ward in August 2017. She had contracted an infection at the Royal Hospital for Children at Glasgow’s crisis-hit Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH).
Last week Milly’s mother told a separate public inquiry she thought her daughter had been ‘murdered’ because of hospital failings.
Officers are probing the deaths to establish whether any person or organisation should face criminal charges.
The children whose deaths are being investigated include a boy, also ten, who died after he contracted cryptococcus, an infection linked to pigeon droppings.
The probe into the death of the third child was previously not publicly revealed but is understood not to be linked to water.
Last night Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: ‘It should never have taken this long, but it’s welcome that a police investigation has now been launched.
‘Given the tragic deaths, the hospital should have been treated as a crime scene. Instead there was a cover-up that caused immense upset for families.
‘My thoughts are with Milly’s family and all those affected by this scandal, who are having to relive the pain of losing a loved one. I hope this investigation gets to the bottom of what went so tragically wrong and delivers the justice families deserve.’
Last week Milly’s mother Kimberly Darroch described her daughter’s death as ‘murder’ during the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry, which is examining problems at the QEUH campus and the Royal
Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh. In the statement, Miss Darroch said she was never given details of her daughter’s infection, which she later discovered contributed to her death.
Miss Darroch also said hospital reports about her meeting doctors to discuss the infection were false.
Her statement said: ‘The hospital should be closed. I don’t think it’s safe. I feel like the health board need to be punished for all of this.
‘What happened to my daughter is murder. She should still be here and I am trying to come to terms with that after coming to terms with losing her initially. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to.’
A spokesman for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said last night: ‘The procurator fiscal has received reports in connection with the deaths of three children and a 73year-old woman at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus,
Glasgow. The investigation into the deaths is ongoing.’
COPFS added that it had ordered Police Scotland to investigate the deaths as part of a wider investigation. The Health and Safety Executive has already submitted a report on the building and ventilation systems.
Prosecutors revealed in January 2019 they were probing the deaths of a ten-year-old boy and 73-yearold woman at the QEUH.
Both were treated for the fungal infection cryptococcus, which is found in pigeon droppings and soil, and can cause infection when inhaled. It is in the environment but can be lethal to patients with compromised immune systems.
Milly had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 2012, aged five, and died in 2017.
Concerns about her death emerged in 2019.
The hospitals inquiry heard she died after contracting stenotrophomonas, an infection found in water. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) was placed in special measures.
COPFS said the death was reported by Police Scotland in August 2017 and that expert reports from NHSGGC are being considered. The procurator fiscal investigates all sudden, unexpected and unexplained deaths, as well as those whose circumstances prompt serious public concern.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘Our investigation is at a very early stage.’
MAC IS AWAY