Hospitals inspected on a proportional basis – Scottish Secretary of Health

The Scottish Secretary of Health said she did not believe that nearly half of the country's hospitals would not have been inspected for their safety or cleanliness.

An article in the Scottish Sunday Express indicates that Health Environment Inspection (HEI) teams have visited only 69 out of 141 sites in the last nine years.

It occurs after the death of a 10-year-old boy at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow after contracting an infection related to pigeon droppings.

Jeane Freeman has since ordered a review of the flagship hospital and how various factors contribute to "effective infection control".

Asked about the report by BBC's Sunday Politics Scotland, Freeman said, "I do not think the Health Sector Health Inspectorate took it that way, but it's rolling independent led by a professional.

"The Inspectorate for the Health Care Environment is independent of me, it looks at how it inspects hospitals on a proportionate basis. So they work according to their own schedule and the exact details of the number of hospitals they inspect and when, and whether it is a full or partial inspection. "

Jeane Freeman commissioned a review of the flagship hospital (Andrew Milligan / PA)

Freeman confirmed to the program that some 20 youths had been transferred from part of the children's ward to the "adult hospital" several months ago due to work on the ventilation system.

She said: "The children's unit has two components: one of them is equipped with a particularly efficient ventilation system, where the bone marrow, etc., is on the point of having a transplant. The immune system of the latter is therefore very compromised. The.

"The other part of the unit did not have this high-end ventilation system, they did not need it, but they took the opportunity to make sure that the second part also has this system because it gives them maximum flexibility.

"In addition to the state for which (the boy who died) was already in the hospital, he contracted Cryptococcus, according to what I understood, at the same time. main hospital.

"That's why, again, this area was shut down while they were investigating what had happened and that these children – cancer patients – were in an additional area from the hospital. "

Dr. Freeman also reported on two patients who have contracted a distinct and unrelated fungal infection called Mucor.

One of the patients is infected and is seriously ill, while the other is colonized and the infection is found on the skin, but they are not directly infected by it.

The hospital only opened in May 2015 (Jane Barlow / PA)

The initial Cryptococcus infection is believed to be due to pigeon droppings found in a machine room on the roof of the hospital, with the ventilation system being the focus of the examination.

Ms. Freeman said, "First of all, I did not say that I was convinced that the infection control in the hospital was sufficient, it was that the hospital had implemented everything I thought must do to strengthen the control of infections in light both cryptococcus and this second unrelated fungal infection.

"But to be absolutely sure, that's why I asked the Inspectorate for the Health Environment to conduct a thorough inspection to provide me with additional badurance.

"I also told you, however, that, as you indicated, we had more than one case of infection that first caused the cancerous children to be displaced in terms of water and drainage, then by Cryptococcal infection and now Mucor infection.

"So we had to be able to make sure that the design, construction and maintenance were suitable for effective infection control."