Scottish Health Secretary Neil Gray during a visit to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, February 14, 2024
SCOTLAND’S NHS watchdog was due to face questions from Scottish Health Secretary Neil Gray today amid a crisis of confidence in its handling of hospital safety concerns.
Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) received complaints from 29 A&E consultants almost a year ago that patient safety was being put at risk at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) because of understaffing and overcrowding in A&E.
But the watchdog has had to apologise to the complainants after they challenged an investigative process that took no evidence from them and closed just three months later having only spoken to senior NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde (NHSGGC) executives.
It’s hard to understand how minor divisions can come to dominate the process of building a challenge to the rule of the rich when the desperate need for a vehicle to fight poverty and despair is so abundantly clear, writes MATT KERR
