Safety devices to protect patients from infections at a scandal-hit hospital were missing in a ward treating a five-year-old girl who later died.
Emily McDowall was at the Royal Hospital for Children (RHC) in Glasgow last year, after developing an infection, when her family noticed leaking air conditioning and missing water filters in her room.
The youngster’s family previously told the Sunday Mail about their ordeal at the facility, part of the £842million Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus, when Emily was misdiagnosed with cancer and suffered infections as a patient.
After she was correctly diagnosed with Pearson syndrome – a rare genetic disorder affecting fewer than 100 people in the world – medics failed to refer her to a specialist for three years, despite telling her family they had done so.
Her mum Samantha Pickering and uncle Kenneth Murdoch, from Ayr, have now told how little Emily was being treated in a room which they fear was not safe in the weeks before her death in October last year.
Emily’s mum and uncle, and dad Kevin McDowall, were by her side when she was admitted to the RHC in August 2021 after developing an infection.
Samantha, 37, said: “We were already very worried about Emily going into that hospital because of the infections she picked up. When Emily was in ward 3C, the room was a state, with mould on the wall, water leaking from the air-conditioner vents and the tap didn’t have the proper filter on it.”
In 2019 special water filters had been installed in wards for very vulnerable people after patients developed infections possibly linked to bacteria in the water supply.
Kenneth complained to the health board but said he was accidentally copied into an email which discussed convincing him to allow his concerns to be handled “informally”.
An NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde spokesperson said: “Emily was cared for in the appropriate ward for her clinical needs. During Emily’s admission, there were no reported issues about mould in the showers or on the walls. The use of filters on taps is based on a risk assessment.
“This case was fully investigated and ultimately handled through our formal complaints process.”
It’s claimed the position NHS medics took on cancer is that it was considered a possibility along with other conditions until it could be ruled out. This is said to be the correct pattern of investigation and they did not consider it a formal diagnosis at the time. Sources have insisted that Emily wasn’t treated for cancer at the time.
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