Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 01 December 2021
My thoughts and condolences are with all the families who have been affected by this scandal. I thank front-line staff at the hospital; our criticisms are not of them. I hope that Parliament can agree that it is the direction and the leadership that they are receiving from the health board that need to be addressed.
When the Queen Elizabeth university hospital was first opened in July 2015, the First Minister described it as one of the
“best designed healthcare facilities in the world”.
The then health secretary described the hospital as “state-of-the-art” and said that it would “transform patient care.”
When families watch their loved ones go into hospital, they expect them to receive the world-leading healthcare for which our NHS is so highly respected. They do not expect an NHS hospital to be the cause of death of their loved ones.
It has been two years since whistleblowers first came forward to suggest that children, including 10-year-old Milly Main, had died as a result of contaminated water, yet we still do not have a complete picture of the extent of avoidable deaths at the Queen Elizabeth university hospital or the Royal hospital for children. Years later, we are still reliant on the bravery of the NHS staff who have come forward to tell the truth.
I thank Labour for lodging the motion and for bringing forward this crucial debate. I praise Anas Sarwar for being a persistent champion of the cause of the families, who deserve answers. They need to know how their loved ones were so tragically let down. The Scottish Conservatives will stand with Labour and its motion today.
The health board has utterly failed in its duties, and it is right that board members are removed as part of a systematic changing of the culture across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde towards openness and transparency.
However, Scottish National Party Government ministers must restore confidence by showing that they are doing everything that they can to treat the scandal of avoidable deaths with the urgency that it deserves. That means escalating the board to stage 5 of the performance escalation framework now.
Almost a week after First Minister’s question time, we have received a letter of apology and correction from the First Minister. Last week, in response to questions, she said that the health board was already at the highest level. At the end of First Minister’s question time, Jackie Baillie made a point of order, and I watched the First Minister roll her eyes when Jackie Baillie said that there was another level to go to. Six days later, the First Minister has written to Parliament to apologise for her mistake and say that the board could still move to stage 5. That is what we are demanding should happen today.
The health secretary and his predecessor must be held accountable for the actions that they have taken since they first learned of these appalling deaths. As Anas Sarwar did, I will ask the health secretary direct questions. What action has been taken to get a grip of the situation? What action has been taken to encourage openness and transparency? What action has been taken to ensure that the hospital is a safe environment for patients?
It is not good enough to hide behind a public inquiry as an excuse for inaction. It is not good enough to hold professionals accountable, but not the politicians who were elected to oversee the performance of our health service. That is why the Scottish Conservatives, in our amendment, are calling for a further independent inquiry to be held into
“the ministerial response to avoidable deaths at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.”
If Government ministers are confident that they have taken every possible action to promote transparency and to take emergency action to prevent further deaths, they will have no issue with backing our amendment.
This is not about scoring political points. Every member in the chamber must understand the anguish and heartbreak of the families who have lost loved ones in this appalling tragedy. I say this as a husband, a father and a son: families entrusted their husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters into the care of the health service and were let down.
A hospital is a place where patients are supposed to get better; it was, instead, the cause of their death, and it might still be causing deaths now. How can we deny families the simple request of knowing what went wrong, why this happened and what is being done to prevent it from ever happening again?