POLICE are assessing whether a health board that failed to provide information about 56 serious incidents at its hospitals was guilty of any "criminality".
Rab Wilson, who worked as a psychiatric nurse for NHS Ayrshire and Arran, submitted a request for copies of all "critical incident" reviews, which are used by the board to improve safety and patient care and minimise risk, turning to information commissioner Kevin Dunion after being told it did not have them.
NHS Ayrshire and Arran said 56 plans had been "uncovered" but Mr Dunion said: "This decision involves perhaps the most serious failings to search for and find information within the scope of a request that the commissioner has ever had to deal with."
Strathclyde Police confirmed it had received the information supplied by Mr Wilson, which is reported to include information on 20 deaths, and was assessing it to establish whether there was any criminality involved.
Mr Wilson is also asking the Scottish Government to prevent gagging clauses in such cases. He told The Herald: "These have no place in an open society."
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said Ms Sturgeon was very clear that all NHS boards were expected to comply fully with freedom of information laws.
John Burns, chief executive of NHS Ayrshire and Arran, said: "We vigorously refute the suggestion that NHS Ayrshire and Arran has been involved in any 'cover-up' involving critical incident reviews; or that any member of staff was involved in criminal deception."
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