Officials ‘looking at’ release of QEUH documents, says Gray

Scottish Government officials are “looking at” how documents demanded by MSPs relating to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) can be released, the Health Secretary has said.

The Scottish Government lost a vote last week – brought by Scottish Labour – which pushed for the release of “all communications connected to the contaminated water and inadequate ventilation system and the premature opening of the QEUH”.

Updating Holyrood on Tuesday, Health Secretary Neil Gray said steps were being taken to look at what can be released and how.

“My officials are now examining how the documents referred to by the motion voted on by Parliament can be released safely and lawfully, and I will update Parliament in due course,” he said.

“However, let me also be clear in stating this Government will not risk the integrity of the independent inquiry or seek to interfere in the work of the Crown Office to purely satisfy the political appetite of some members in this chamber.

“At the heart of this matter is the families who deserve the truth, and that will be delivered by Lord Brodie’s inquiry and the Crown Office investigation. I will not interfere with that process.”

The Health Secretary went on to announce the creation of a “safety and public confidence oversight group”, which would be chaired by the chief executive of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Professor Lewis Ritchie.

The body – which will engage with patients and their families, the public, staff and whistleblowers, the Health Secretary said – will assess the environment of the hospital, its leadership, public confidence and the implementation of the recommendations of the ongoing Scottish Hospitals Inquiry.

Scottish Tory health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said the new body was akin to “asking an arsonist to investigate why the house burnt down” by allowing the health board to lead it.

The Health Secretary also appeared to dismiss media reports about warnings to the Government about infection issues at the hospital as far back as 2015.

The Scottish Mail on Sunday reported that 14 red and amber Hospital Infection Incident Assessment Tool (HIIAT) were issued between 2015 and 2018 – when the Government claims it was first made aware of the scale of infections at the hospital – at least some of which should have been passed to ministers.

Referencing the reports, Mr Gray said the alerts “did not suggest there were wider problems in the QEUH”.

“Indeed, this evidence is already before the inquiry and red HIIAT alerts can be assessed as red for a range of reasons, including severity of illness and impact on service delivery and is not necessarily an indication of a wider problem,” he added.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said “no-one believes the Health Secretary when he says there were no warnings of issues until March 2018”.