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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Lucinda Cameron

Mum told son with cancer would be 'safer at home' than at QEUH

A mother was told by a doctor that her son, who was being treated for cancer, would be safer at home than in a hospital where issues were linked to children's deaths, an inquiry has heard.

Denise Gallagher's son was diagnosed with leukaemia when he was eight years old and he was treated at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (RHCYP) and the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow between May 2018 and March 2020.

The Scottish Hospitals Inquiry heard that at the start of his treatment his parents were told he needed to be put on preventative antibiotics.

His treatment with the medicines, which included posaconazole, was discussed at a discharge meeting with a doctor in ward 2A in the children's cancer unit at the RHC on the QEUH campus.

Mrs Gallagher told the inquiry: "At the start we were told he needed to have antibiotic cover for infection, that was the general gist of it, maybe hospital acquired or just in general skin infections, anything like that.

"The discussion about the posaconazole was when he was getting discharged after his first cycle of chemotherapy, (the female doctor) was going through his kardex (medical file).

"She said one medicine he wouldn't get because it's IV only but he would not need the posaconazole because he is not here, he is safer at home."

She added: "She said he is not here and he is going home, he is safer."

The inquiry is investigating the construction of the QEUH campus after issues at the flagship site were linked to the deaths of two children.

It is also examining the construction of the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People and Department of Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh.

The inquiry was ordered after patients at the Glasgow hospital died from infections linked to pigeon droppings and the water supply, and the opening of the Edinburgh site was delayed due to concerns over the ventilation system.

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