Vulnerable patients at a crisis-hit Scots hospital are being put at risk of infections by failures in the ventilation system, health and safety chiefs have warned.
They’ve slapped an improvement notice on the £842m Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow and told bosses they could be fined - or even jailed - if it’s not complied with.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) complaint centres around a ventilation system in ward 4C at the hospital which is used for kidney transplant and cancer patients.
In their notice, they informed NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde on Christmas Eve that they had “failed to ensure” that the ventilation in the ward is “suitable and sufficient to ensure that high risk patients who are vulnerable to infection are protected from exposure to potentially harmful airborne microbiological organisms”.
The health board insisted last night that “additional safeguards” had already been put in place on the ward in January and they were set to meet with the HSE to discuss their current concerns.
The HSE said improvement must be made by the end of March next year and that failure to comply would be considered an offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde went public with the improvement notice in a statement released just after 5pm this evening.
In it their chief executive Jane Grant said: “We are sorry for the distress that patients and their families have experienced by the current issues and want to assure them and the public that we are working with the Scottish Government to do everything necessary to remedy the situation.
“I also want to thank our staff for the commitment and professionalism they have demonstrated throughout this time, ensuring that our patients continue to receive the safe, high quality healthcare they deserve.
“Patients who require specialist ventilation are cared for in Ward 4B which is a fully HEPA-filtered ward. As a further precaution we introduced mobile HEPA filters in Ward 4C in January as part of our control measures when we were investigating infections at that time.
“We welcome the opportunity to discuss these actions with the Health and Safety Executive when we meet them in the New Year.”
It comes amid a series of concerns over the safety of patients at the flagship hospital site which opened in 2015 and includes the Royal Hospital for Children.
Ten-year-old Milly Main died in 2017 after contracting an infection linked to the water supply at the hospital.
She was in remission from cancer.
Mason Djemat, three, died weeks before Milly and had been staying on the same ward.
A 10-year-old boy also died in December last year after he contracted a fungal infection linked to pigeon droppings.
The Record recently revealed NHS bosses were warned of the “high risk” of water infection when the hospital opened in 2015.
Despite the red flags, two further inspections by the same contractors found “significant” problems remained in 2017 and 2018.
Earlier this month the NHS confirmed it had begun legal action against Brookfield Multiplex – the contractor involved in building the hospital.
An inquiry into its design, fabric and construction was also announced by Health Secretary Jeane Freeman.
The health board has also been placed in “special measure” over the problems with the site.
The board also said that under Scottish health technical memoranda, general wards do not require to undergo the critical system verification that has been required in the Ward 4C improvement notice.
