An investigation was launched after an 11-year-old girl and other patients unexpectedly died in a hospital – the building’s water system was ‘more likely than not’ to be blamed
A leading health board admitted an issue with it’s water system “probably” led to a deadly infection in child cancer patient at a major hospital.
Milly Main, 10, died at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, in Glasgow, while being treated for leukaemia. The young girl was infected with a rare bacteria – Stenotrophomonas maltophilia – and tragically died on August 31, 2017.
Her family believe the bug came from contaminated water at the hospital which caused a line feeding drugs into her body to become infected. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) had repeatedly denied that bacteria in the water was the cause for infections that led to the deaths of several people.
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In closing submissions to the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry, the NHSGGC said it accepts that it is “more likely than not that a material proportion of the additional environmentally relevant blood stream infections (BSI)” in patients between 2016 and 2018 “had a connection to the state of the hospital water system”.
It added: “NHSGGC accepts that, on the balance of probabilities, there is a causal connection between some infections suffered by patients and the hospital environment, in particular the water system. NHSGGC departs from its earlier submissions in this regard, having heard all expert evidence.”
A spokesperson for NHSGGC, according to the BBC, said it was backing the inquiry while the Scottish Government said it would be “inappropriate to comment.” An investigation was launched to look into alleged mistakes made during the design and construction of the hospital campus after concerns were raised after four patients unexpectedly died.
This major U-turn was hailed as a “turning point” by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who called for a corporate homicide investigation to be expanded to include politicians who he accused of a “cover-up”. Sarwar vowed to establish Milly’s Law in memory of the 10-year-old cancer patient who died. Writing in the Scottish Daily Mail, he said the law “would create an independent public advocate with the authority to investigate incidents and establish the truth”.
He added: “For years, families have been forced to fight for the truth about what happened to their children at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. Whistleblowers were gaslit, lied to and punished for telling the truth.
“They have been ignored, dismissed, patronised, and made to feel like they were ‘making a fuss’; attacked and victimised by NHS managers paid for by taxpayer money, they have lost jobs, and seen their personal lives targeted by institutions more interested in covering up their failures than the truth.”
Sarwar added: “The QEUH scandal is one of the worst failures in modern Scottish public life. Since the hospital opened, there has been a litany of serious problems: concerns about water safety, environmental risks, governance failures, and infections that devastated families.”
Scottish Conservative health secretary Dr Sandesh Gulhane MSP said: “QEUH has been at the centre of several infection-related scandals from its very beginning. There is now a substantial body of evidence that points to a cover-up at the very top, which has only been exposed by this inquiry.
“Families like those of Milly Main, Molly Cuddihy and many others have waited years to get straight answers from those responsible. Those are now being extracted rather than freely given. That long and expensive process only became necessary because of a culture of secrecy.”
A spokesperson for NHSGGC said: “We remain fully committed to supporting the Inquiry in its investigations.” A Scottish government spokesperson, according to the Daily Record, said: “We established a statutory public inquiry so that families could get answers to their questions, and so that lessons can be learned for future hospital projects.
“As an independent core participant of the Inquiry, the Scottish government is committed to assisting the Inquiry and therefore it would be inappropriate to comment any further at this time.”
