A senior doctor who raised concerns after a deadly microbe was found in a superhospital’s air before it even opened was asked if she really ‘wanted to end’ her career, an inquiry has heard.
Dr Penelope Redding made a series of startling claims at the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry saying microbiologists at the beleaguered Queen Elizabeth University Hospital were warned their careers would be destroyed while bosses urged staff not to blow the whistle regarding concerns about its safety.
She also said there had been a culture of fear and bullying and that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde chief executive Jane Grant tried to stop her whistleblowing.
The 73-year-old was a consultant microbiologist involved in the preliminary planning for the new hospital and one of a number of senior doctors who raised infection control concerns at the facility.
In a shocking witness statement to the inquiry, she revealed that before it even opened in 2015 concerns had been raised about ventilation and other issues.
Dr Penelope Redding made a series of alarming claims at the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry
Dr Redding, who is now retired, said: ‘The results of the air sampling that had been done in the new hospital as part of the commissioning process were giving rise to concerns.
‘The microbiologists had discovered that, during the air sampling process, there were only three air changes per hour as opposed to the six air changes which were required according to the standards.
‘They had also isolated micro-organisms, including Mucor in the paediatric haematology/oncology ward.’
The now retired doctor said despite these being reported through the proper channels, there was a ‘general concern that they were not being listened to’.
The inquiry was told that she reported concerns to the then director of diagnostics, Aileen McLennan, as that was the reporting line in place at that time.
But, her written evidence said: ‘Her response to me was to ask if I really “wanted to end my career like this”.’
The inquiry is investigating whether infections in patients at the £840 million Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow are linked to problems in its construction, ventilation and water supply
Ms McLennan should have reported it further, Dr Redding said, but because she had ‘lost faith in the system’ she took the concerns further herself.
She said she had discussed the ventilation problems, highlighting the air changes and Mucor which she had been warned had a ‘mortality rate of up to 85 per cent in children’.
But her concerns were dismissed, with the mortality figure challenged, and told the ventilation concerns were merely her opinion even though she was not the only microbiologist with concerns.
The probe in Edinburgh, chaired by Lord Brodie, is investigating whether infections in patients at the £840 million campus are linked to problems in its construction, ventilation and water supply.
The inquiry was set up after a number of deaths including that of Milly Main, a 10-year-old cancer patient.
Dr Redding said there was a ‘profound culture of fear and bullying in which people were terrified of speaking up’ and management told people ‘not to put things in writing’.
The retired doctor gave an example saying that when microbiology trainees produced a document detailing concerns after being urged by her to write them down, a meeting was held and she heard a senior medic say he was ‘going to “destroy their careers”’.
Dr Redding was a number of senior doctors who raised infection control concerns at the hospital, and was told how the board’s chief executive Jane Grant pleaded with her not to blow the whistle on her concerns.
She told the inquiry: ‘I recall her specifically saying to me that she “urged” me not to do it.’
When she insisted she would, she told the inquiry, she was called by a non-executive director who spent 45 minutes trying to talk her out of it and ‘repeatedly asked me “what can we do” to stop me doing it’.
Dr Redding told the inquiry: ‘The culture and perception within [the health board] at the time was that a whistleblower should be seen as a troublemaker who was to be criticised for raising concerns and causing stress to patients and relatives.’
The inquiry continues.