By Bill Heaney
Andy Slorance was one of the few good guys who practised the “dark arts” of public relations and communications for public bodies such as the Scottish Government.
He was always pleasant, good at his job and knew exactly why journalists had to ask awkward and occasionally intrusive questions to get the answers they needed to write their stories.
He had been a journalist himself and was skilled at what he did in the newspaper trade in which he excelled as a reporter.
His grieving wife Louise does not deserve to have spent years the years since his death fighting an SNP Government and NHS Scotland “cover-up” to get answers about her husband’s death.
Louise must feel demeaned by the way these arrogant people who run our poisonous political system has done nothing to ameliorate her tragic loss.
If they have done anything at all, our elected representatives and their civil services lackeys have made things worse for Louise.
The SNP are more concerned about themselves and many of them are now blaming Nicola Sturgeon’s secretive and dysfunctional regime for the loss of so many MPs in the recent election.
Nicola Sturgeon herself led the tributes when Andy died in December 2020, aged 49, after contracting Covid and a fungal condition while in hospital.It has since emerged that failings at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow may have contributed to his death.
In addition, the Scottish Government policy of deleting WhatsApps and other records from the pandemic has prevented his family from getting to the truth.
Posting on X on Sunday, Louise Slorance said: “My children were 8,9 and 12 when their lives changed forever and they needed to carve out a new fatherless future.
“As a single mum I was working, parenting and fighting the mother of all cover ups, courtesy of Sturgeon, Swinney et al.
“When you find your new future remember what you did, knew and did not speak up about and, the many that suffered as a result. Learning comes from acknowledging, owning and changing. Good luck!”
Andy Slorance, a popular figure who worked for the Scottish civil service for 20 years, was head of communications for the government’s emergency response unit at the time of his death.
Nicola Sturgeon described him as a “wonderful person” and former national clinical director Jason Leitch said he did more “than almost any other” to tackle Covid.
He was fighting a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the time but his widow insists his condition should not be used as an excuse for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s failings, or the subsequent attempts to cover up any medical errors and even smear the family.
Speaking to The Times newspaper in December, she said: “My husband was on his own, isolated in hospital for six weeks, but he walked in there perfectly healthy, having completed 300 miles on his bike for Cancer Research UK — he was healthy.
“He had cancer but it was not affecting his quality of life. They turned that into his death in the space of six weeks. This is about patient safety, it is not about having somebody to blame for Andrew’s death. It is about patient safety and protecting future patients.”
She wrote: “Louise, extremely well said and I have nothing but complete admiration for you having to undertake all that you have and still do, having to battle for the justice and answers you and your family so rightly deserve You are one amazing lady and never forget that.”