Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Review (June 2020)

Summary

The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Review was prompted by public and political concern following reports of the deaths of three patients between December 2018 and February 2019. The deaths had been linked to rare microorganisms and concern was growing that these organisms were in turn linked to the built environment at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) and Royal Hospital for Children (RHC).

The Review's remit was: “To establish whether the design, build, commissioning and maintenance of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and Royal Hospital for Children has had an adverse impact on the risk of Healthcare Associated Infection and whether there is wider learning for NHS Scotland”.

Content

The independent review team found that patients, staff and visitors with compromised immune systems were exposed to risks which could have been lower if the correct design, build and commissioning had taken place.

However, the report also says that since the building’s opening, measures have been put it place or are underway to ensure a sustained reduction in these risks.

The report also identifies a number of other issues which arose as a result of the infections, including the effect on public confidence, disruption to treatments, additional workloads for infection prevention and control teams and diverting resources away from the day-to-day running of the hospital.

The Review did not establish a sound evidential basis for asserting that avoidable deaths resulted from failures in the design, build, commissioning or maintenance of the hospital. However, this is one of the areas which will also be considered during the forthcoming Public Inquiry.