Inquiry findings show we were right to delay opening of hospital, says Gray

The findings of an inquiry show it was the right decision not to open an Edinburgh children’s hospital, Scottish health secretary Neil Gray has said.

The Scottish Hospitals Inquiry released its interim findings earlier this month, with chairman Lord Brodie saying NHS Lothian was not clear enough on the design of the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People and Department of Clinical Neurosciences in the capital.

The opening of the facility was halted just hours before it was due to begin receiving patients at the behest of then health secretary Jeane Freeman due to concerns about the ventilation system in the paediatric critical care department.

Freeman later launched the inquiry, which has also looked at issues with the building of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus in Glasgow after a number of deaths of patients linked to infections.

Speaking in Holyrood on Thursday, Gray said Lord Brodie’s report showed Freeman made the right decision.

“The interim report confirms that the decision taken by the then cabinet secretary to postpone the opening of the hospital was the right decision,” he said.

“This decision understood the risks associated with the introduction of patients into a facility that had not met the required safety standards.

“Only through this direct intervention by the then cabinet secretary were we able to act and deliver the necessary changes to the built environment.”

The opening of the hospital was delayed by almost two years until March 2021, at a reported cost of almost £17 million.

The hospital, Gray said, is now providing “safe, effective, person-centred care, and has been since the facilities opened in March 2021”.

However, Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie – also her party’s health spokeswoman – questioned why a similar delay had not occurred at the Glasgow hospital.

“In the case of the Edinburgh Sick Kids, unfortunate though the delay was and the uncertainty for families, thankfully, no child lost their life,” she said.

“I believe Jeane Freeman was right to put patient safety first.

“In contrast, the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Nicola Sturgeon’s flagship, was rushed through when it clearly was not safe and children died as a consequence.”

Dame Jackie asked the health secretary what lessons had been learned as a result of the issues encountered at the facilities.

“I would caution Jackie Baillie around arriving at conclusions around the Glasgow side of the inquiry – the inquiry is still ongoing,” the Health Secretary said.

“There is much evidence still to be led in that inquiry and I would not, I certainly cannot, prejudge or seem to cut across in any way, the work of a public inquiry.”

On lessons that have been learned, the health secretary pointed to NHS Assure, an agency set up to assess risk in the NHS estate, which he said was “about making sure that every single stage of the commissioning of a health infrastructure programme that we have assurance as to the safety and to the practicality of a health project”.

He added: “I believe that is giving us much greater assurance as to the safety that Jackie Baillie is looking for.”