Whistleblowers came to me with devastating evidence that children had died due to infections in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital — but their parents had never been told the true cause of their deaths
Anas Sarwar, Scottish Labour leader, pictured with Kimberley Darroch, mother of ten-year-old Milly Main, who died at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
by Bill Heaney
Scotland’s First Minister was today accused of giving answers to a judge-led public inquiry into the deaths in hospital of at least two children as “simply not credible”.
Labour leader Anas Sarwar claimed “Pressure was applied to open the hospital on time and on budget, and it is now clear that the hospital opened too early. It was not ready.”
Mr Sarwar, was speaking in the Holyrood parliament. He said: “The hospital opened with contaminated water, which infected people and led to the deaths of at least two children. Weeks before the children’s hospital opened, an internal report warned of a high risk of infections and, therefore, a high risk to life for immunocompromised patients.
“The report was ignored, pressure was applied and the hospital opened anyway, with devastating consequences. Who applied the pressure and why?”
One tough question followed another for First Minister John Swinney, who replied: “I will make two points to Mr Sarwar. First, as he correctly says, the hospital opened in 2015. The first that the Scottish Government was advised by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde of a water contamination problem was on 1 March 2018, which was long after the report that Mr Sarwar has referred to.
“Secondly, Mr Sarwar has raised a point that is absolutely fundamental to the conduct of the public inquiry, which Lord Brodie is undertaking. I acknowledge the significant public interest in the issue, which is why Lord Brodie must have the opportunity to consider and reflect on the evidence and to set out his conclusions.”
Anas Sarwar told MSPs: “The answer is not credible. It is either at least negligence or, more likely, criminal incompetence if the Government is suggesting that the internal report was never seen.
“When the hospital opened, Nicola Sturgeon was the First Minister, John Swinney was the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Economy, so he signed the cheques, and Shona Robison was the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Sport.
“They received the internal report that warned of high risks of infection weeks before the hospital opened. They ignored it and opened the hospital anyway, and children died as a result.
“For seven years, families have been lied to; whistleblowers have been bullied, gaslit and punished; and those who raised concerns were dismissed and patronised.
“Pressure was applied to open the hospital before it was ready, even though there was contaminated water that risked lives. I ask John Swinney again: who applied the pressure and why?”
The First Minister maintained: “Those issues are the substance of the public inquiry that Lord Brodie, pictured right, must undertake. As I have already indicated, the Government expected the hospital to open and preparations were being made to do that. “The operational responsibility for that lay with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Mr Sarwar said that the experience of whistleblowers, staff, and patients and their families has been completely unacceptable. I agree with that whole-heartedly.
“That is why the Government set up a public inquiry—because we were so concerned about the circumstances, we felt that it was necessary to have a judicially led inquiry to get to the truth and to satisfy the legitimate concerns that exist. That is what Lord Brodie will reflect on in the course of completing his report.”
Anas Sarwar was angry.
He said: “If Jeanne Freeman [a former Labour special adviser who defected to the SNP and became Health Secretary] could see a report and stop the opening of a hospital in Edinburgh, why could Nicola Sturgeon, John Swinney and Shona Robison not do that too? That is at the heart of the issue.
“This is the biggest scandal in the history of the Parliament. I first raised the case seven years ago, when whistleblowers came to me with devastating evidence that children had died due to infections but their parents had never been told the true cause of their deaths.
“One of those parents was Kimberly Darroch, the mother of Milly Main. Milly was in remission but died after contracting an infection from the water. She was 10 years old. Milly was forced to fight not only cancer but an unseen danger inside those hospital walls. Every step of the way, the health board and countless SNP ministers closed ranks and denied that there was a problem.”
He added: “People have died. Their families deserve the truth. A hospital was opened too soon with contaminated water that infected patients and led to deaths.
“The health board says that pressure was applied to open it before it was safe.
“I therefore ask the First Minister, for the third time, to tell the truth. The health secretary at the time is sitting [in the chamber] right next to the First Minister, who was the Deputy First Minister and finance secretary at the time. They could ask Nicola Sturgeon, too. Tell the truth: who applied the pressure and why?”
The First Minister maintained: “I have already answered that question through the answers that I set out to Mr Findlay.”
But not everyone was having that. And protests from the Holyrood benches had to be halted by the presiding officer.
Stephen Kerr told Mr Swinney: “No, you did not.”
The First Minister replied: “I would say to Mr Sarwar that, when the Government became aware of those issues, which was when the water contamination incident was raised with it on 1 March 2018, a sequence of events followed that led to the establishment of a public inquiry.”
Stephen Kerr urged Mr Swinney to answer the question.
But Mr Swinney told him: “Once the circumstances were reported to the Government in March 2018, a sequence of events was put in place that resulted in the establishment of the public inquiry, the substance of which involves consideration of all the evidence.
“That is what the Government has done to make sure that we face up to the issues that are being raised in the chamber and provide answers to the families of Milly Main and others, who have suffered so significantly as a consequence of those circumstances.
“That is the commitment that the Government has made and that Lord Brodie will fulfil.”
- See also previous report on question to the FM from Tory leader Russell Findlay
- Top of page: Milly Main and her mother, Kimberly Darroch.
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The problems of bad build of infrastructure are a sadly recurring story. the Queen Elisabeth hospital is just another example. Schools with collapsing walls and poor construction standards are another example.
You do not need to look far too see examples of this all round the country. Indeed, in our own local back yard you only need look at the new Balloch twin campus primary school to see a building where around 30% of the external wall panels have failed. And the answer to this for anyone who hasn’t look is to initially cover the broken wall panels with plywood before later coming back cover the broken panels by screwing on boards of a similar colour to the broken wall cladding.
It wild, a new school with around 30% of the wall patched up! But as I say it is reflective of the poor quality building that has been thrown up everywhere these last few decades.
And so, thee politicos may well weep and wail about whatever particular building standards disaster take their fancy of which the QE hospital is just the latest thing to selectively bump their gums about.
But maybe instead of political Ya Boo, its time to understand exactly why bad build is as extensive as it is. Something is driving this and it is not rocket science to understand why. There has always been a man who can build poor quality at for expensive prices, and as is clear in our situation get away with it.
No one it seems wants to talk about it but if I may opine the seismic shift began as a glint in Mrs Thatcher’s eyes for it to be thereafter taken up big time by Messrs Blair and Brown. And that seismic shift was the introduction of PFI and Design and Construct.
PFI was a fiscal wheeze. Put simply public bodies stopped buying public assets. Rather they engaged a nice builder and his special purpose facility provider to design and build whatever asset was needed and then rent it to the public authority. As a concept it reduced the pubic borrowing because the public bodies or government bodies were only renting not buying. Quite what the difference between a 30 year loan is, which is borrowing compared to a 30 year lease, which is not, is difficult to undestand is difficult to understand,
And then there is the cost of finance. Trillions of it across the UK in fact and sourced from all manner of private funders. Store card interest rates do I hear someone say. Or like an oil tanker the cost of the asset, like a school or a hospital, is like an oil tanker accommodation block at the stern with the finance charges comparing to the huge underwater hidden forward part of the boat. Big, big, big payday for the corporate lenders.
But PFI brought along with it something else which was the concept of design and construct where all responsibility for design and build and checking and self certification was transferred to the builder, developer. And therein lies one huge problem. Freed to effectively self certify the system of PFI and the concomitant design and construct has changed the procurement landscape.
I don’t know exactly what funding model was in place for the QE hospital or our local Balloch Twin Campus primary school , but both are models of the new procurement ideology that so afflicts our build standards.
But to conclude. Many of the horrendously expensive poor quality projects across the UK are now coming near the end of their concession period where after the assets, if you can call them that, are supposed to transfer. With their design live concomitantly coming to an end where does the government go after that.
Its a good question and a big big question. More PFI or an iteration of it. Not unreasonable to suspect so and really, for most folks, do they know, or do they actually care, even though its all got to be paid for,