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The deaths of children at Scotland’s flagship super hospital could result in people going to jail, it was warned yesterday.
The bombshell admission by NHS chiefs that dirty water at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow caused serious infections in young cancer patients was yesterday described as ‘the biggest scandal in the history of the Scottish parliament’.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said ‘it would be very fair’ if people involved in the scandal were to face prison ‘if a court of law decides’.
It came amid calls for the Health Secretary to make a statement at Holyrood and calls for former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s involvement in the scandal to be investigated.
The children died shortly after the hospital opened in 2015, but health board officials denied for years the building was to blame.
Victims included ten-year-old Milly Main who contracted an unusual bacterial infection while being treated for leukaemia in 2017.
In a U-turn, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) has now accepted a link between dirty water and the killer bugs.
Prosecutors instructed police to launch the criminal investigation in 2021 and it looked at four deaths – Milly’s, two other children and Gail Armstrong, 73. The health board was named as a suspect in 2023.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has warned that people involved in the scandal were to face prison 'if a court of law decides'
Milly Main, 10, who died at the hospital in 2017 with her mum Kimberly Darroch
The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow that has been at the centre of controversy since it opened in 2015
Now former ministers could be drawn into the probe as pressure mounts for the investigation to include politicians.
Mr Sarwar said: ‘All those that were on the scene at the time, the First Minister at the times, health secretaries, finance secretaries, they all have to be looked at as well as the leadership of that health board at the time. A devastating cover-up took place, which resulted in infection in children and deaths of children, and that in my view is criminal and needs an investigation.’
Asked if he believed the SNP Government put ‘political pressure’ on NHSGGC to open the hospital before the election and so risked lives, Mr Sarwar said: ‘I think, bluntly, yes.’
A previous leaked report showed a high risk of infected water was identified just before the hospital opened, but not acted upon.
Mr Sarwar added: ‘I’m not willing to believe that no minister ever saw it, or that no chief executive ever saw it, or that no chair of the health board ever saw it. This is the biggest scandal in the history of the Scottish parliament.’
Asked if he expected people to go to jail, he said: ‘Children have died here. If a court of law decides that means someone goes to jail, I think that would be very fair.’
The Scottish Tories have also demanded Health Secretary Neil Gray make an urgent statement to parliament today. Only organisations, such as companies and public bodies, can be prosecuted for corporate homicide.
But their bosses can be prosecuted and jailed under workplace safety law.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We are committed to assisting the inquiry and therefore it would be inappropriate to comment any further. Any potential charges are a matter for the Crown Office.’
NHSGGC said: ‘We remain fully committed to supporting the inquiry in its investigations.’
The SNP and Ms Sturgeon’s spokesman declined to comment.
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