Freeman tells inquiry Government was ‘naive’ in hospital oversight

The Scottish Government was “naive” in its oversight of a health board at the centre of infection concerns at a flagship hospital, former health secretary Jeane Freeman has admitted.

An inquiry was told Ms Freeman believed leaders at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) took a “nothing to see here” approach when concerns emerged about the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH).

The former SNP minister, who held the health portfolio between 2018 and 2021, gave evidence to the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry on Friday.

She described a meeting in early 2019 with the health board’s leaders which left her feeling they did not appreciate the “seriousness” of the situation.

A few months earlier, the hospital was forced to “decant” patients from some wards in response to a water contamination incident.

The inquiry has been examining the design and construction of the QEUH in Glasgow and the Royal Hospital for Children, which are on the same campus.

It was launched in the wake of deaths linked to infections, including that of 10-year-old Milly Main.

Inquiry counsel Fred Mackintosh KC asked Ms Freeman about the nature of oversight on NHSGGC.

He suggested there may have been a failure in the “oversight and scrutiny” of the health board.

Ms Freeman said: “I’m not sure I think it would be fair to say it’s a failure of oversight and scrutiny.

“I think it is naive of Government not to have that situation – to maintain that situation.”

Ms Freeman said on the other hand, some had criticised her approach as health secretary as being too “centralist”.

The former health secretary said she had later set up an independent review into hospital infections.

NHSGGC was moved into stage four of the Government’s “escalation framework” in response to the infections issue in November 2018.

The inquiry also heard about a meeting in early 2019, where Ms Freeman and senior Government officials spoke to the health board’s leadership.

Written evidence from Ms Freeman showed she “came away from that meeting with a general impression of surprise and concern about NHSGGC’s guardedness and downplaying of the importantness of the situation”.

Ms Freeman said she was taken aback by the fact the medical director asked her why she was attending the meeting – despite her being the health secretary at the time.

Her written statement added: “My impression, at that time, was that there was a general ‘nothing to see here’ response from NHSGGC.”

The inquiry, being held before Lord Brodie in Edinburgh, continues.