John Swinney has said he is “deeply sorry” for the suffering experienced by families caught up in the scandal at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, admitting he may not have communicated that clearly during a meeting with them last week.
The First Minister issued the statement after families challenged his claim during a BBC interview that he had apologised during a call on Thursday about the crisis.
He said: "I expressed my sincere sorrow and regret during the long, and at times emotional, call with families. It was primarily an opportunity for them to tell me their experiences and for me to listen but I also tried to communicate to them how sorry I was about their experiences.
"I have obviously not communicated that effectively so I want to be crystal clear today: I am deeply sorry for the issues they have experienced at the QEUH and all that families have gone through.
"Their pain, trauma and suffering is unimaginable and I have said the conversation on Thursday was the start of a wider discussion to help families get the answers they deserve, beyond the work of the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry."
During the interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Swinney “regret” for the suffering of those affected by problems at the hospital.
Pressed on whether he had apologised, the First Minister replied: “Of course I did, yes".
However, some of those at the meeting said there was no apology.
Maureen Dynes, widow of Tony Dynes, who died in May 2021, aged 63, while being treated at the QEUH for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, told The Herald: “As the First Minister said himself to Laura Kuenssberg he expressed regret for what we had been through, but at no point was an apology given for the harm and deaths caused within the QEUH."
Another of those who met the SNP leader on Thursday told Sky News that “none of the many families whose children, spouses and parents were harmed, and died at the QEUH heard an apology”.
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The hospital has been at the centre of a long-running controversy over infections among vulnerable patients, including children receiving cancer treatment.
The QEUH campus, which includes the Royal Hospital for Children, opened in 2015, just weeks before the general election.
However, concerns emerged within a few years about infections among vulnerable patients linked to problems with the building’s water and ventilation systems.
Between 2017 and 2021 at least 84 children were reported to have developed infections connected to issues with the hospital’s water supply.
Last month, MSPs heard from families whose children have been left severely disabled because they were put on powerful anti-infection drugs.
The families were told that the prophylaxis medicines — powerful medicines used to prevent disease or infection — were a routine part of their treatment and saw their sick children put on them for far longer than they would normally be used.
Several deaths among young cancer patients treated at the hospital have also been linked to the wider controversy, which prompted the Scottish Government to establish the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry in 2019.
Earlier this year, in closing submissions to the probe, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde acknowledged for the first time that problems with the water system had probably caused infections in some patients treated at the children’s hospital.
During the BBC interview, Mr Swinney was challenged over whether the SNP Government had failed to act quickly enough when early warnings about problems at the hospital emerged.
Ms Kuenssberg noted that concerns about the hospital had persisted for nearly a decade and pointed out that part of the facility had again been closed recently because of water and mould issues.
Asked what he told families during the meeting, Mr Swinney said: “Well, first of all, I expressed my regret for the experiences of families and in some cases for the loss of children who had been cared for in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
“I said to the families that fundamentally I believe the hospital is a safe hospital on the basis of all of the data that I have available to me.
“But we have a public inquiry that is looking at the original construction and development of the hospital and the issues that have emerged as a consequence.”
Asked whether the Government regretted failing to take “red flags” seriously, Mr Swinney rejected the suggestion.
“I would contest that point,” he said.
“We set up a public inquiry, so we accepted the need to look at these issues in detail.”
He added that the inquiry had been preceded by individual case reviews examining the treatment of specific patients.
“In the here and now where issues arise, where there are problems, the Scottish Government, through NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, is addressing those issues,” he said.
The controversy has resurfaced in recent days after an infection alert level was upgraded on a ward caring for bone marrow transplant patients at the hospital.
Earlier this week, Mr Swinney told MSPs that a “red” healthcare infection alert had been issued for ward 4B at the hospital.
He said the change reflected “heightened public anxiety” rather than an increased clinical risk to patients.
“It is important that I put that on the record that, fundamentally, the clinical consensus is that the wards in question are safe,” he told the Scottish Parliament.
However, a report in the Mail on Sunday suggested more than a fifth of the 24 rooms on the hospital’s bone marrow transplant ward have been closed at some point in the past six months because of water leaks or mould concerns.
During the BBC interview, Mr Swinney was asked whether the hospital had received a full set of safety validations for every ward and unit, a question that opposition parties have also been asking.
He did not answer, saying: "What I'm saying to you is that essentially that work has been undertaken on an ongoing basis to make sure the hospital is safe.
"And in the course of the public inquiry there were specific examples of water analysis and ventilation system analysis that gave greater levels of confidence about the safety of the hospital."
Ms Dynes said it was now clear that validation "has not been carried out and the majority of rooms fall below national standard for patient safety".
She added: "Ward 4B bone marrow transplant unit holds the most vulnerable patients in the hospital and as our national unit, patients have no other choice where they can be treated within Scotland.”
Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said “The families affected by the QEUH scandal have been through hell and it is shameful that John Swinney and the SNP government continue to add to that pain with their lies.
“Once again John Swinney seems to be more concerned about his own reputation than the suffering of families and patients.
“An apology is the least these families deserve from the SNP - they also deserve honesty, accountability and action.”
Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Dr Sandesh Gulhane MSP said: “John Swinney has been evasive and secretive about this scandal from the start, but it is a new low for him to claim that ‘of course’ he apologised to the families of those who died and suffered when they say he did nothing of the sort.
“I’m appalled and disgusted that he appears not to have offered the full and frank apology that is obviously required, and that the families need to hear.
“The First Minister has sought to avoid giving answers by hiding behind the fact that an inquiry is underway, but he must finally come clean and give families and victims the truth about the failures of safety at the hospital and admit his government’s responsibility.”
