Managers of a project to build a £1 billion hospital at the centre of infection concerns should be held to account, but personnel working there under “extreme pressure” should not be criticised, an inquiry has heard.
The Scottish Hospitals Inquiry has been examining the design and construction of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (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.
In closing submissions to the inquiry, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) said that pressure was applied to open the hospital on time and on budget, and it is now clear that it opened “too early” and that it “was not ready”.
The health board also accepted that there was probably a “causal connection” between infections suffered by patients and the hospital environment, in particular, the water system.
Peter Gray KC, representing NHSGGC, was questioned by inquiry chairman Lord Brodie, pictured right, about oral submissions made the previous day.
Mr Gray said there should be a distinction between the “acts or omissions or conduct” of those managing the project and those addressing the “unprecedented circumstances” which they faced after the project was complete and the hospital was handed over.
Referring to a paragraph in the closing submission, he said: “The inquiry is invited to note that this submission was made in relation to the circumstances which existed following completion of the project and the hospital having been handed over, and the extreme pressure under which all personnel were operating.
“In other words, my Lord, when it is submitted that personal or professional criticism should not be made of any of these individuals or how they reacted to the extreme pressure they were under I have in mind those who were having to deal, post the opening of the hospital, with a very complex and pressurised situation.”
Lord Brodie asked what the test should be to distinguish between where personal responsibility should be attributed if the evidence supports that, and where it should not.
Mr Gray said: “I would suggest, my Lord, that the distinction is to be made between those who were acting under extreme pressure in an unprecedented situation following the handover of the hospital.
“In respect of those personnel and my submission, personal professional criticism should not be made of any of those individuals, having regard to the extreme pressure under which they were working.
“Whereas by contrast, I would accept that in relation to the management of the project, where the inquiry considers that there have been failings, that individuals should be held to account where appropriate.
“And where criticism is due, it is accepted that it should be made robustly, and that is the distinction I seek to draw.”
Milly Main, left, died in 2017 after contracting an infection at the Royal Hospital for Children’s cancer ward on the campus of the QEUH in Glasgow.
Lord Brodie said that the health board now makes “fairly unqualified admission of failure to listen” in circumstances broadly described as whistleblowing.
Mr Gray said that failure to listen was an organisational failure based on a culture which it is accepted did not place appropriate emphasis on listening to staff and encouraging the raising of concerns.
The inquiry continues in Edinburgh.
The closing conclusions made by the KC representing the health boards are most interesting.
In essence they reflect the reality that the hospital was badly built and that thereafter, with the hospital having been put into use and occupation, hospital staff struggled with the consequences.
Its a grim closing conclusion and no one should underestimate the prImary cause, which was bad building standards. That is the starting point. And he says construction project managers should be held liable.
So, looking at the big picture, what we have is rotten to the core construction standards. Had the hospital been properly constructed, the consequences would not have arisen.
This country, this society, needs to address why our built environment is so poor.
Schools, hospitals, roads are all affected and it shouldn’t take rocket science to realise what is driving this poor quality building.
PFI, design and construct, industry self certification as to design and build quality standards, are staring us in the face.
Indeed, maybe the most clear cut example of this is the Grenfell tragedy where flammable cladding was placed on the outside of tower blocks, with similar dangerous cladding installed all around the UK including one may add Bonnie Scotland.
Money, and the lure of money, talks and talks big. But who let the genie out of the bottle to create this landscape.