by BILL HEANEY
Parents of sick children throughout Scotland will be horrified by the appalling inspection report on NHS Grampian that was published yesterday, according to Michael Marra, the recently elected leader of ther Scottish Labour Party.
Given that the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow, which serves patients from West Dunbartonshire and Argyll, has been in the eye of the healthcare storm almost since it opened under Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP government and that a public inquiry chaired by a Court of Session judge has taken place over deaths and infection spread there, all parents will be shocked.
Mr Marra asked John Swinney at First Minister’s Questions: “At Dr Gray’s hospital [in Elgin], operations for sick children continued despite the fact that they were known to be unsafe. How many of those operations on children were carried out?”
The First Minister, pictured left, replied that the contents of the report from Healthcare Improvement Scotland that was commissioned by NHS Grampian make appalling reading, he echoed the concerns that Mr Marra had expressed about how the report will leave parents feeling.He added: “It is crystal clear that the requirement to end the surgery in question for children at Dr Gray’s was not followed by NHS Grampian, which is reprehensible. I understand from my reading, assessment and interrogation of the report that there have been no negative consequences of that process, but, regardless of that, it is unacceptable that arrangements that should have been stopped for proper patient safety reasons were not stopped—hence the findings of Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s report and the dramatic changes that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Care [Angela Constance] and I expect to take place at NHS Grampian to address the legitimate concerns that Mr Marra puts to me about patient safety, which will be of acute concern to parents in the Grampian area today.”
“The Government might be taking limited action today, but, crucially, issues at NHS Grampian have been known about for years. Repeated reports in 2014, 2016 and 2023 all raised the alarm, and the health board has lurched from crisis to crisis. None of it should be news to the Government. When John Swinney was Deputy First Minister in 2014, the Scottish National Party said that it was ‘confident that NHS Grampian can turn the situation round’.
He added: “The First Minister has acknowledged that operations were carried out on children in unsafe conditions, despite the fact that the Government has known about issues at NHS Grampian for well over a decade. How on earth has the Government let things get to this point?”
The most recent issues are of a much greater and escalated level of severity. The Government started its most recent engagement of concern about NHS Grampian in May 2025, when we escalated the board to level 4 for finance, leadership and governance concerns.
“An external assurance board was put in to support the NHS Grampian board. It was clear that some of the requirements that the assurance board asked to be taken forward were not being implemented, which is why Healthcare Improvement Scotland—the independent inspectorate—has undertaken the work that it has carried out.
“There have already been changes to the leadership of NHS Grampian. There is a new chair of the board, John Connaghan, who is an experienced healthcare professional who held a very senior role in the Scottish Government on healthcare issues. There is a new chief executive in place, who initiated the Healthcare Improvement Scotland report. A large proportion of the board has been replaced and, today, changes have been made to the senior leadership of NHS Grampian that, in my view, are necessary as a consequence of the report.
“I hope that that assures Mr Marra that the Government is taking incredibly seriously the contents of the Healthcare Improvement Scotland report. Changes have been made immediately in relation to the leadership of the board, and we will leave no stone unturned to ensure that services and the safety of patients in NHS Grampian are at the centre of the steps that the Government takes to strengthen the position in the Grampian area.”
“There is a broader culture problem at the top of our health service that is not confined to one region of Scotland. It should not take an independent, judge-led inquiry to get justice for the families of those who were made sick and who died because of failings at the Queen Elizabeth university hospital in Glasgow.
“It should not take an independent, judge-led inquiry to get justice for the hundreds of victims of Eljamel in Tayside. Labour members have been saying for years that those cultural issues have been widespread.
“At the top of too many of our health boards are managers who are not accountable to citizens, who act with impunity and who are too often concerned about headlines rather than delivering care. Does the First Minister agree?”
“As First Minister, I must be careful to ensure that there continues to be public confidence in the services provided by NHS Grampian. I believe that there is that confidence, and I want the public to hear loud and clear from their First Minister that dramatic action has been taken to provide an assurance on that.
“Mr Marra raises a wider point about culture in our public services. He and I are in agreement on that, because I believe in what he has put to me—the importance of members of the public having confidence in our public services, those leading our public services being accountable for them, and our being transparent about the weaknesses that are there.
“I am not trying to defend a thing. A lot must change at NHS Grampian in order to address the legitimate issues that have been raised. Public attitudes and public confidence are at the heart of all of this. I assure Mr Marra of the Government’s determination to lead a culture whereby that is the case.”