Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 01 December 2021
My thoughts are with everyone who has been affected by infection outbreaks at the Queen Elizabeth university hospital and with anyone who has lost a loved one. I cannot imagine the pain that has been experienced by the families of people who have caught infections in a place where they were supposed to be safe and cared for.
Those people deserve answers, which is why it is right that a public inquiry has been established and is under way. It is, of course, essential that we do not wait for the findings of the inquiry to be published and that action is taken now to prevent further infection outbreaks. As we have heard, Healthcare Improvement Scotland is carrying out a wider review of Aspergillus infections at Queen Elizabeth university hospital, and the board is implementing the recommendations of the independent review, the oversight board report and the independent case note review. That essential work must continue at pace, and I am sure that we will all monitor progress closely.
It is important that any findings and decisions are communicated on an on-going basis to patients, families and staff. I would be grateful if the cabinet secretary would confirm that people are being kept up to date.
The independent review found that
“Patients, staff and visitors who are vulnerable due to immuno-suppression, or who are in proximity to patients with certain highly infectious communicable diseases, have been exposed to risk that could have been lower if the correct design, build and commissioning had taken place.”
It is of deep concern that we cannot seem to get the basics right when constructing new, state-of-the-art hospitals in Scotland. We have seen that at both the Queen Elizabeth university hospital and the Royal hospital for children and young people in Edinburgh. I sincerely hope that the public inquiry will clearly set out the steps that we need to take to avoid such failures in the future.
There has been a devastating human cost behind those failures, and we have a responsibility, when debating these sensitive matters, to get the tone right. We risk causing more harm than good if we are not careful about the language that we use. Senior clinicians at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have raised concerns about the way in which the issues have been portrayed. They feel that their integrity is being questioned and that that is undermining patients’ confidence in them and the services that they provide.
As I said, those who are responsible for failures must be held to account, but the attacks on clinicians will not help us to do that. I am concerned about damaged patient trust and lower staff morale at a time when people are under severe stress. We need to establish what has gone wrong and how it can be prevented in the future, while also rebuilding trust between clinicians and patients, whose faith in services will understandably have been shaken.
Practical steps are being taken to improve patient safety, but we cannot ignore the emotional toll, so mental health support must be made available to patients, families and staff who have been affected. [Interruption.] I would welcome any comments from the cabinet secretary about what support is being provided.