Prosecutors are now investigating the deaths of seven patients linked to Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH), it has emerged, as the Scottish Labour leader claimed political pressure was applied to open the hospital early.
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) confirmed on Saturday that two additional deaths are being examined: Molly Cuddihy, 23, who died last August after treatment for a rare bone cancer, and Andrew Slorance, a former Scottish government civil servant. They join previously confirmed cases, including 10-year-old Milly Main, two other children, and 73-year-old Gail Armstrong, who had contracted a fungal infection while being treated for non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The COPFS also said it had received a report concerning the death in 2021 of Anthony Dynes, 65, who was also being treated for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The health board has offered a "sincere and unreserved apology" to those affected and insisted it is a "very different organisation" from the one involved in the hospital's design and construction a decade ago.
The development follows a six-year public inquiry which reached its final stages last month. The inquiry heard that serious infections in 84 child cancer patients, two of whom died, were probably caused by the contaminated water system. Three senior microbiologists who first raised the alarm said they still had "significant concerns" about changes instigated by senior management.
At First Minister's Questions, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said he had "damning evidence" from minutes of meetings that political pressure was applied to open the hospital in April 2015, just before the general election. He told MSPs: "That decision to open the hospital early has resulted in a decade of lies, deceit and cover-up, bullying and gaslighting of staff, families being lied to and denied the truth and infections that led to the deaths of children and possibly adults too – all because politics was put before patient safety." The claims have previously been denied by First Minister John Swinney and former first minister Nicola Sturgeon.
