Hansard

Scotland is now confronting what many rightly regard to be one of the most serious healthcare failures in recent memory. After years of denial, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has now accepted that contaminated water systems at the Queen Elizabeth university hospital were, on the balance of probabilities, linked to serious infections in child cancer patients and to deaths. That admission did not come quickly, voluntarily or without a cost.

For years, families fought to have their experiences recognised. They did not ask for headlines or politics; they asked for honesty. Instead, they encountered delay, deflection and disbelief, while officials explored every possible explanation, except the one that was staring them in the face. Following closing submissions to the Scottish hospitals inquiry, the position has shifted dramatically. Although legal and political consequences will continue to unfold, our responsibility in the chamber is clear—to ensure transparency, accountability and justice for those who were failed.

For years, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde insisted that there was no causal link between the hospital environment and patient infections. That position has now been abandoned. In its closing submissions, the board accepted that it is more likely than not that some bloodstream infections were connected to the hospital environment—particularly the water system; that infection rates fell only after remedial work was carried out in 2018; and that whistleblowers were not adequately listened to. Those are not minor concessions; they fundamentally alter the narrative.

The hospital opened to patients just 10 days before a general election. At that time, Nicola Sturgeon was First Minister, John Swinney was Deputy First Minister and Shona Robison was Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport. For years, the SNP denied the problem and opposed a public inquiry into the hospital, before eventually U-turning. It ignored safety concerns and dismissed families who were grieving. Warnings were minimised and whistleblowers were called troublemakers rather than listened to.

Eighty-four child cancer patients were infected and at least two died. Police Scotland is now investigating multiple deaths that are linked to the QEUH campus. Those families deserve answers, not deflection, denial or silence. The SNP must be honest about who put pressure on NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to open the hospital before it was safe to do so, what ministers knew and when they knew it.

This flagship Government project was a centrepiece of the SNP’s 2015 general election campaign. Frankly, no one believes that ministers had zero role in overseeing it or in making decisions. If that was the case, that would be gross negligence. Those who were responsible, whether in the Government or the health board, must be held to account.

However, this is not only about the actions of ministers; it is about culture. We have heard repeated evidence of a defensive and closed management culture, of clinicians being discouraged from putting concerns in writing, of senior experts being dismissed and of parents being reassured while wards were quietly closed around them.

Families have described being misled and dismissed while children became seriously ill. The father of victim Molly Cuddihy said that the health board was “warned for years” about those issues. That is not a system learning from mistakes; it is a system protecting itself. That is why the motion matters.

We now know that the hospital opened before it was ready. We know that microbial risks were identified, yet patients were admitted regardless. The First Minister has acknowledged that there were cultural problems at the health board and that families appear to have been lied to. That is significant, but acknowledgement is not accountability. The health secretary has done nothing to hold those same health bosses accountable, and he has ignored our call to put the board into special measures.

That is why the call for full disclosure and the preservation of all relevant communications is essential, not optional. Communications relating to water contamination, ventilation failures, the opening of the hospital and the handling of infections must be released in full.

No organisation should be above scrutiny, no reputation should come before patient safety and no family should have to fight for years to be believed. The families are not seeking scapegoats—they want recognition, change and assurance that this will never happen again. The greatest injustice of all would be to allow such a failure to be repeated. That is why, given her role as the then health secretary and later as the then First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon should come forward and make a personal statement to the Parliament setting out what she knew, what she was advised of and what actions were taken under her leadership. That is what our amendment calls for, and it is what the victims want.

Kimberly Darroch, the mother of 10-year-old Milly Main, who died after contracting an infection while being treated for leukaemia in the hospital, said:

“I do believe that Nicola Sturgeon knows something. My message to her is to come forward and be honest.”

I agree with Milly Main’s mother, and that is why I urge every MSP to support our amendment. This Parliament owes them nothing less.