Doctors' A&E safety warnings snubbed by watchdog

An NHS watchdog has apologised to 29 doctors at Scotland's biggest hospital for not fully investigating their concerns about patient safety.

A&E consultants at Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital wrote to Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to warn patient safety was being "seriously compromised".

They offered 18 months' worth of evidence of overcrowding and staff shortages to back their claims.

But HIS did not ask for this evidence.

The watchdog also did not meet any of the 29 doctors - which is almost every consultant in the hospital's emergency department - to discuss the concerns after it received the letter last year.

Instead, it carried out an investigation where it only spoke to senior executives at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde before then closing down the probe.

HIS has now issued a "sincere and unreserved apology" to the consultants and upheld two complaints about the way it handled their whistleblowing letter about patient safety.

One consultant who signed the letter told BBC Scotland: "We'd exhausted all our options and thought HIS was a credible organisation.

"We offered to share evidence of patient harm. We were shocked that they ignored this and didn't engage with us as the consultant group raising concerns."

Another consultant added they were "shocked at their negligence."

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Source: BBC News, 25 March 2024