NICOLA Sturgeon has called on NHS staff at a hospital at the centre of an infection scandal to raise concerns with her directly amid claims of "a culture of bullying and intimidation”.

The First Minister has insisted that the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow is safe for patients as she revealed the facility has relatively fewer contamination outbreaks than other campuses.

Labour leader Anas Sarwar pressed Ms Sturgeon for action over alleged infections linked to the QEUH campus as he highlighted another case having spoken to the mother of a six-month-old who contracted an infection called Serratia.

Mr Sarwar has persistently raised concerns about the hospital following the death of 10-year-old Milly Main in 2017. Whistleblowers have revealed that water-borne bacteria has infected an estimated 84 children.

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Former Scottish Government official Andrew Slorance died last year after it is believed he picked up an infection at the QEUH.

The First Minister accused Mr Sarwar of raising a “suggestion that the hospital is somehow unsafe and that there is a higher risk of infection than anywhere else”, adding that “evidence does not bear that out”.

She added: “Whether that evidence is hospital standardised mortality ratios or published reporting of hospital-acquired infection, the Queen Elizabeth performs better than the national average and better than many other hospitals.

“In addition…Scotland as a whole has a lower prevalence of HAI (hospital acquired infection) than the European average.”

Ms Sturgeon highlighted claims “a systemic problem at the Queen Elizabeth" is causing infections.

She said: “We take all this seriously, but the very difficult fact is that, despite best efforts to minimise the risk, no hospital anywhere in the world can eradicate completely the risk of infection in very sick patients.

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“I asked NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to do an internal review. It has advised me that, based on the work that it has done so far, there is no child who had Aspergillus noted on their death certificate as a direct or contributory cause of death.

“We are not resting on that. Healthcare Improvement Scotland has been asked to carry out a wider review.”

Ms Sturgeon pointed to previous claims by Mr Sarwar over “a culture of bullying and intimidation” at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and said if true, clinicians “should raise that in any way that they see fit and they should come to me directly, because that is not and would not be acceptable”.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has said it has “always been open” about problems at the flagship hospital.

A spokesperson added: "We encourage all staff to speak up and to raise any concerns, and staff who do so will be supported through our normal channels, including our whistleblowing policy."

Mr Sarwar asked for more details after Health Secretary Humza Yousaf had confirmed three Healthcare Infection Incident Assessment Tool (HIIAT) warnings have been raised to ministers, which flags a potential infection outbreak, since he took on his new role.

The First Minister stressed that a HIIAT assessment “signifies two or more cases of infection that are linked”.

She confirmed that two red notices and one amber notice have been raised from the QEUH this year on January 12, May 7 and June 23.

Ms Sturgeon said: “In the same timeframe as those three alerts were made in relation to the Queen Elizabeth, 45 were notified across Scotland as a whole.

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“The Queen Elizabeth represents more than 11 per cent of all adult acute beds in Scotland, but less than 7 % of the HIIAT notifications.

“We take all these concerns very seriously, but it is also important that politicians do not come to the chamber and try to erode confidence in the quality of care that is provided by dedicated clinicians in the Queen Elizabeth hospital every single day.”

The Labour leader suggested that “when those infections happen, they should be notified so that the Government can take the necessary action”.

He added: “While the First Minister hides behind process, and behind a public inquiry that could take three more years, patients are still getting infections and lives are still being lost.”

Mr Sarwar highlighted a mother he had spoken to “who recently and tragically lost her six-month-old baby”.

He added: “The child was in the intensive care unit at the children’s hospital on the Queen Elizabeth University hospital campus.

“The mother showed me the death certificate. Listed as a cause of death was Serratia, another deadly bacterium linked to water and to the hospital environment.

“Another child has died and another family is grieving. What will it take before action is taken?”

The First Minister stressed that when a HIIAT is not triggered “that does not mean that no action is taken on individual cases of infection”.

She said: “The reality for every hospital across the world is that, despite the best efforts and the highest quality of care, it is not possible to prevent every case of infection in very sick patients with compromised immune systems.

“Every case of infection is serious. When we look at all the evidence, the Queen Elizabeth has a lower incidence of infection than many other hospitals, although it is a big hospital providing specialist care.”

A spokesperson for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “We have been, and remain, fully committed to being completely open and transparent in all that we do and we are dismayed that claims to the contrary are being repeated.

“The assessment of infection incidents is a rigorous process undertaken by our frontline clinical staff and infection control teams.

“The output from this process is governed by national guidance and assessments are submitted to the national reporting body ARHAI. All of these reports are then reviewed by ARHAI.

“With regard to the young patient who sadly died and who was mentioned today, for reasons of patient confidentiality we cannot comment on the individual circumstances of this or any case.

“However, we would encourage patients or relatives who have any concerns about any aspect or their or their loved one’s care to come forward and speak to one of our clinicians.

“We are reaching out to the family mentioned by Mr Sarwar to offer them support and to discuss any issues they would like to raise.”