The first minister has said it “does look like” families of patients who acquired infections while being treated at Glasgow’s flagship hospital have been lied to.
John Swinney also said there has been a “cultural problem” within Glasgow’s health board, which is being “flushed out” by a public inquiry into the design and construction of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) complex.
The health board only last week admitted issues with its water system probably did cause infections in child cancer patients – having initially denied this.
Swinney said families are being given a “very different explanation today” but added whether they were lied to is for the inquiry to decide.
Friday was the final day of oral hearings at the long-running public inquiry.
Lord Brodie will publish a full report and recommendations at a later date, though there is no deadline for this.
Speaking on Scotland’s The Sunday Show programme, Swinney said: “It’s quite clear there’s been a cultural problem in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and that the inquiry essentially is flushing out that issue.
“What I want to say to those families today is that the government will take very very seriously what Lord Brodie says and will act upon his recommendations – but what has clearly happened in the situation in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital is completely unacceptable.”
When challenged that it looked like families had been lied to, Swinney said: “It does look like that, but ultimately it’s for Lord Brodie to come to those conclusions.”
The has previously reported that a corporate homicide investigation, launched in 2021, is looking into the deaths of 10-year-old Milly Main, 73-year-old Gail Armstrong and two other children at the hospital.
The Mail on Sunday has now reported that six deaths are being investigated by police – three adults and three children.
Neither Police Scotland, the health board nor the Crown Office have confirmed this.
Separately, prosecutors opened an investigation last year into the death of a young woman – seven years after she became seriously ill with an infection potentially acquired in the hospital.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “COPFS asked Police Scotland to investigate a number of deaths at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus, Glasgow.
“Police Scotland has submitted a report to COPFS. As this investigation remains ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
A spokesperson for the health board said: “We can confirm that we are continuing to support this investigation.”
The public inquiry was ordered in 2019, four years after the £840m Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus opened.
It came after concerns about patient safety, prompted by a number of deaths and high levels of infection at the campus.
The inquiry looked at the Royal Hospital for Children in particular where immune-compromised young people were being treated for blood disorders and cancer.
Among the patients who died was 10-year-old Milly Main, who acquired an infection while in remission for leukaemia, and 84 children were infected.
The inquiry, which looked at the design, build, commissioning and maintenance of the hospital and their impact on patient safety, heard from 186 witnesses.
Throughout the inquiry, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGCC) insisted bacteria in the water supply was not to blame for the infections.
Then in a U-turn earlier this month, it said there was a connection “on the balance of probabilities”.
During the final day of evidence on Friday, the inquiry’s senior counsel Fred Mackintosh KC said NHSGGC’s initial denials and delayed acceptance of infection problems had “severely impacted” the work of the inquiry.
He also said senior managers had shown a “wilful blindness” to issues with the QEUH building.
‘Pressure’ to open early
In its closing submission to the public inquiry, the health board also admitted the hospital opened before it was ready, and that there was “pressure” to deliver the project on time.
Opposition MSPs have claimed to John Swinney that there was political pressure to open the hospital early – though he and Nicola Sturgeon, who was first minister at the time the hospital opened, have emphatically denied this.
The health board clarified on Saturday evening that the pressure it had referred to in its inquiry submission was internal.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the inquiry had not examined the “political decision-making” around the opening of the hospital.
He told the : “Those that are responsible should be held to account because this is simply unforgiveable.
“I don’t say this lightly but at the very least this is negligence. I think this is criminal incompetence.
“I think there’s something rotten at the core, both in terms of the health board management and officials and also ministers.”