Patient who died – ten year old Milly Main and her mother with Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, who has been helping the family and Health Minister Jeane Freeman.
Democrat reporter
The Scottish Government was “naive” in its oversight of a health board at the centre of infection concerns at a flagship hospital, former health secretary Jeane Freeman has admitted.
An inquiry was told Ms Freeman believed leaders at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) took a “nothing to see here” approach when concerns emerged about the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH).
She described a meeting in early 2019 with the health board’s leaders which left her feeling they did not appreciate the “seriousness” of the situation.
A few months earlier, the hospital was forced to “decant” patients from some wards in response to a water contamination incident.
The inquiry has been examining the design and construction of the QEUH in Glasgow and the Royal Hospital for Children, which are on the same campus.
It was launched in the wake of deaths linked to infections, including that of 10-year-old Milly Main.
Inquiry counsel Fred Mackintosh KC asked Ms Freeman about the nature of oversight on NHSGGC.
Ms Freeman said: “I’m not sure I think it would be fair to say it’s a failure of oversight and scrutiny.
“I think it is naive of Government not to have that situation – to maintain that situation.”
Ms Freeman said on the other hand, some had criticised her approach as health secretary as being too “centralist”.
The former health secretary said she had later set up an independent review into hospital infections.
The inquiry also heard about a meeting in early 2019, where Ms Freeman and senior Government officials spoke to the health board’s leadership.
Written evidence from Ms Freeman showed she “came away from that meeting with a general impression of surprise and concern about NHSGGC’s guardedness and downplaying of the importantness of the situation”.
Her written statement added: “My impression, at that time, was that there was a general ‘nothing to see here’ response from NHSGGC.”
The inquiry, being held before Lord Brodie in Edinburgh, continues.