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The Scottish Hospitals Inquiry is approaching its concluding phase just days after NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) acknowledged that infections affecting some child cancer patients were likely linked to the hospital’s water system. This marks a significant shift from earlier denials by the health board, which had rejected suggestions that bacteria in the water at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) campus could be responsible for the infections.
The inquiry was initially launched following a series of infections and tragic deaths, including that of 10-year-old Milly Main, who contracted a lethal infection while undergoing treatment for leukaemia. The investigation has examined issues related to the planning, design, construction, and ongoing maintenance of hospital facilities. Over its course, the inquiry has collected evidence and will soon hear final oral submissions across four days before releasing its comprehensive report later this year.
The health board’s updated position, revealed in a document submitted ahead of the inquiry’s final session, acknowledges that there is a “causal connection” between elevated rates of bloodstream infections among child patients in the hospital and its environment, particularly the water system. NHSGGC noted that infection rates decreased following remedial work in 2018, which included modifications to the hospital’s water infrastructure. Previously, senior health officials had described the infections as complex and attributable to multiple potential sources, but families affected by these tragedies have welcomed the recently admitted link while criticizing the delay in accountability.
Milly Main’s mother, Kimberly Darroch, expressed her frustration, stating, “As a mother, I’ve spent six years fighting for answers that should have been given at the very beginning.” Milly had been in remission when she developed septic shock after an intravenous line became infected in 2017. Similarly, John Cuddihy, whose daughter Molly passed away in 2022, described the health board’s admission as “overdue recognition” of the water system problems families had cautioned about for years. Molly’s fatal infection occurred seven years prior, underscoring the prolonged nature of these concerns.
The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, which forms part of the Glasgow hospital campus alongside the Royal Hospital for Children, opened its doors in 2015 at a cost of £840 million. Despite the significant investment, the hospital faced mounting issues within a few years, with multiple patient deaths and infections raising red flags over the safety of both its water and ventilation systems. In 2019, then-Health Secretary Jeane Freeman ordered a public inquiry that also extended its scope to include Edinburgh’s Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (RHCYP).
The Edinburgh hospital had experienced its own setbacks, with its opening delayed due to last-minute safety concerns regarding its ventilation system. An interim report for the RHCYP revealed a critical spreadsheet error by the health board, which resulted in the ventilation system being incorrectly specified. This compounded the challenges facing pediatric hospital care in Scotland and added further urgency to the ongoing investigations into hospital safety
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