Steps to ensure Queen Elizabeth University Hospital met expected standards branded 'inadequate'

Measures taken by the Scottish Government to ensure a flagship Glasgow hospital was built in compliance with expected standards were “inadequate”, according to a note published by the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry.

In the “supplementary note” issued on Monday, lawyers to the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry said ministers did not become aware of issues with the water and ventilation systems at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) until 2018 or 2019.

They said any pressure from the Government on NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) to open the facility on time and on budget in 2015 had therefore been made in ignorance of these issues.

However, the note was critical of the measures taken by the Government to ensure the hospital was built in compliance with Scottish Health Technical Memoranda (SHTM), which set out best practice in the design of healthcare facilities.

It said the Government had been “reliant” on NHS GGC to raise issues around compliance, and that it had assumed – wrongly – that the health board had its own “mechanisms of approval” to ensure all standards were “properly considered”.

It added that had ministers been aware of issues at the hospital before it opened, “Government intervention” could have prevented them.

The inquiry looking at the design and construction of QEUH and Royal Hospital for Children was launched in the wake of deaths linked to infections, including that of ten-year-old Milly Main in 2017.

The note’s conclusion reads: “It was not until 2018-2019 that the Scottish Government first understood that NHS GGC had decided in the agreed ventilation derogation to build this flagship hospital not in compliance with Scottish Government guidance.

“The Scottish Government did not know about the problems with the water system until 2018, but then neither did the senior management and board of NHS GGC due to failures to provide sufficient resources and lack of oversight by those responsible for the water system.

“Any ‘pressure’ from the Scottish Government to open the hospital on time and on budget was made in ignorance of both issues.

“The Scottish Government systems to manage the procurement of this hospital it paid for were inadequate for the task of ensuring that it was built to technical standards the public and Scottish Government as funder should have expected.”

The note was published in response to “developments” since the inquiry’s last oral hearings on January 20-23 2026.

These include a letter from Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar on January 26 urging inquiry chair Lord Brodie to hear evidence from “key figures holding political office during the opening of the hospital and the subsequent handling of infections prior to 2019”.

These include, the letter said, Nicola Sturgeon, Shona Robison and John Swinney – with the Labour leader saying the inquiry had not “scrutinised the role and conduct of Scottish ministers related to the hospital”.

Sarwar added there was a risk ministers could use the inquiry’s final report “as evidence the problems were contained entirely within the health board and could not have been prevented by Government intervention”.

However, in the note, the lawyers said the fact ministers had been unaware of the issues before the hospital opened meant there was no “evidential basis” to hold further oral hearings.

They added it is not correct to say that “these problems were contained entirely within NHS GGC and could not have been prevented by Government intervention”.

Scottish Labour health spokesperson Dame Jackie Baillie described the note as a “damning indictment of SNP ministers’ failure to protect patients and safeguard public money.”

She continued: “It says the Scottish Government’s oversight was ‘not adequate’, that there was no ministerial scrutiny of the construction contract despite taxpayers’ money being on the line, and that the guidance supposed to prevent these failures was ‘too obscure and entirely ineffective’.

“While this note is welcome, it is no substitute for the examination under oath that should have been carried out as part of this inquiry.

“After all the spin, this makes clear there was a serious failure of government oversight at the heart of this scandal and the SNP must now stop lying about their role in it.”

The Scottish Government has been approached for comment.