by HANNAH RODGER
Vital repairs to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, which has been hit by mystery infections and a patient deaths scandal-hit flagship hospital are set to cost taxpayers £ 170 million.
The scandal-hit flagship Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) – where police are investigating the deaths of three children and four adults who contracted infections – faces the huge bill to fix serious faults in the £1billion building, which former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and successive SNP health ministers insisted was safe to open.
The huge bill now hanging over the Scottish government comes after NHS bosses finally admitted that contaminated water at the NHS hospital was likely linked to serious infections in young cancer patients – after denying any connection for six years.
Defects have also been highlighted in the construction of the killer hospital’s ventilation system, particularly in wards which accommodate patients with very low immune systems.
The hospital serves patients in West Dunbartonshire and Argyll and Bute, including Helensburgh.
Since the infections scandal broke, politicians and campaigners have claimed the building is still unsafe and have called for major improvements.
This weekend, The Mail on Sunday revealed that £120 million worth of repairs are needed at the hospital and the adjoining Royal Children’s Hospital, which replaced Yorkhill Hospital – on top of the £ 50 million that has already been squandered on piecemeal projects.
Demands have been made constantly for the Scottish Government and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) to explain exactly how the extra money will be spent. The QEUH in Glasgow has been plagued by problems since it opened in 2015
‘If ministers expect the public to stump up another £120 million, they must come clean about exactly what has gone so badly wrong and where every penny will be spent.’
The late Queen Elizabeth opened the QEUH in 2015, with the project being heralded by the SNP as a major government achievement.
But dozens of patients, mainly children with cancer, became ill and some died after contracting rare infections which their loved ones suspected were linked to contaminated water or inadequate ventilation systems.
Typically of the SNP’s Secret Scotland policies, members of the group set up to make the NHS board more transparent must agree to a confidentiality clause.
NHSGGC has been named a suspect in a corporate homicide investigation into the deaths of four patients, including schoolgirl Milly Main and grandmother Gail Armstrong, while the overall infection issues and potential links to the hospital building are being probed by a public inquiry, which itself has cost at least £ 32 million.
The new expected costs are detailed in internal briefings obtained by the Mail on Sunday under Freedom of Information laws, and state the ‘rectification works’ to the superhospital are ‘circa £120,000,000’, including the need for a new bone marrow transplant unit after the existing one was plagued with leaks and mould.
A report by the NHS’s Scotland West subnational group produced in March stated that there needed to be awareness of ‘emerging capital priorities’ when considering spending on any other NHS projects, ‘for example the need to progress the rectification works within the QEUH and Royal Hospital for Children Rectification Works (circa £120,000,000), noting the requirement for a new adult bone marrow transplant unit’.
There have been previous reports about how the Health Board was planning to replace substandard floors in all of the bathrooms and inpatient rooms. It also emerged that 500 substandard fire doors had to be replaced at £ 15.5 million, along with cladding in the QEUH atrium.
Mr Briggs added: ‘The SNP’s mishandling of Scotland’s flagship hospital has already cost patients, staff and taxpayers dearly.
‘After years of secrecy and cover-ups, they owe the public full transparency and accountability.’
Dumbarton MSP and Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Dame Jackie Baillie, left, said: ‘These are huge sums of money and there needs to be transparency about what it is to be used for.’
A spokesman for NHS Glasgow refused to reveal what specifically the extra £ 120 million was needed for but said: ‘While a range of potential rectification costs across the wider QEUH estate have been identified and estimated, these figures remain indicative.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Ministers have been clear they would welcome consideration of any proposals relating to remediation works, including for a new bone marrow transplant unit.”
Additional reporting by Bill Heaney, of The Democrat
Top of page: The Royal Children’s Hospital on the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus.