New concerns at Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital as part of cancer ward closed
Mould and dirty water ingress have led to the partial closure of a cancer ward at the Glasgow hospital.
Part of the bone marrow transplant ward at Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital has been closed and patients moved. Sky News reports that air scrubbers are currently being used in corridors on the ward to remove possible airborne contaminants, with regular air sampling taking place.
The £842 million Glasgow super-hospital is currently at the centre of an infection deaths inquiry. Calls have been made for politicians including Nicola Sturgeon, who was first minister when the hospital opened and the scandal came to light, alongside then health secretary Shona Robison and John Swinney to give evidence to the inquiry over what they knew about the fatal infections at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) and the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH), on the same site in Glasgow.
Dr Christine Peters, a consultant microbiologist at the QEUH who was an infection control doctor when the facility opened, warned in January that we “don’t have the evidence that satisfies me” that the building is safe.
A Sky News investigation found that mould and water leaks have been identified in clinical areas within the adult bone marrow transplant (BMT) unit, which treats patients with severely weakened immune systems. Several rooms in Ward 4B have been closed and patients moved out as a result.
Professor Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at the University of Aberdeen said: "It is shocking in the sense that water ingress, there shouldn't be any. The system should be absolutely perfect. Mould could potentially infect any of the patients who are in there who are very defective or have zero immune systems, and it could kill them.
"That part of the hospital is not safe. The bone marrow transplant unit is not safe, and nobody should be saying it is, because it clearly isn't.
"We should be closing that particular ward because until we've got that problem resolved… then that environment is not safe.
"This is an old problem which has been going on for years, and I'm staggered that it hasn't been resolved to a satisfactory conclusion by this time."
A spokesperson for the hospital said: "Patient safety remains at the heart of everything we do, and infection prevention and control are core priorities across all our hospitals.
"Since the QEUH and RHC [Royal Hospital for Children] opened in 2015, we have faced challenges linked to the original build quality.
"The building we got was not what we paid for. We acknowledge the impact this has had on patients, families, whistleblowers and staff, and we are sorry for the distress caused. Where historical issues have been identified, comprehensive programmes of remediation and assurance have been undertaken.
"Safety is actively managed everyday and we continue to monitor performance, including the use of approved equipment to ensure wards remain safe for our patients. This includes thorough testing of the water and ventilation to provide additional safety assurance, particularly for our vulnerable patients."