Scottish prosecutors are investigating the deaths of two patients, a 10-year-old boy and a 73-year-old woman, who contracted an infection connected to pigeon droppings at Queen Elizabeth University hospital in Glasgow.
The Crown Office confirmed it was investigating the deaths at the hospital, as Holyrood’s health committee was urged to begin its own inquiry into claims that infections were spreading at the £842m facility as though in “Victorian times”.
The Scottish government’s health secretary, Jeane Freeman, told MSPs last Tuesday the cryptococcus infection was a contributory factor in the boy’s death. The second death was initially said not to be connected to the infection, which is believed to have originated from pigeon droppings found in a non-public room on the hospital’s roof before entering the hospital’s closed ventilation system.
Freeman subsequently ordered a review of the design, build, and maintenance of the hospital and how these contribute to “effective infection control”. On Sunday she confirmed another patient at the hospital was “seriously ill” after contracting a separate fungal infection called mucor.
A Crown Office spokesman said: “The procurator fiscal has received reports in connection with the deaths of a 10-year-old boy and a 73-year-old woman at the Queen Elizabeth University hospital in December 2018 and January 2019 respectively. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into the deaths, under the direction of the crown’s health and safety division, is ongoing and the family will be kept updated in relation to any significant developments.”
On Tuesday morning, the Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs called on Holyrood’s health committee to “investigate this scandal as a matter of urgency”.
He told the committee: “It’s bad enough that two people have lost their lives in such unacceptable circumstances. But in the weeks since, the SNP government has been complacent and badly lacked transparency.”
Briggs added: “The new Queen Elizabeth was supposed to be a flagship hospital offering the very best care in a safe, clean environment. Instead, infections have been allowed to spread in a way you would associate with the Victorian times.”
