A PAEDIATRIC cancer ward closed amid a string of infections is to reopen from next week following an £8.9 million refurbishment.
Ward 2A/2B at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow will reopen to patients from March 9.
The unit, known as Schiehallion, specialises in treating children and teenagers for blood-borne diseases and cancers.
It has been closed since September 2018 after a number of patients developed bloodstream infections associated with water-borne bacteria.
Plans to reopen the unit have been repeatedly delayed by problems with supply chains and pandemic-related social distancing, which slowed progress.
The £8.9m upgrade includes the replacement of the ventilation system with 11 new air handling units and refurbishing patients' rooms with upgraded ensuite bathrooms and new iPads and entertainment systems.
The kitchen and sleeping facilities for parents and carers have also been refurbished and a new SMaRT (Scottish Paediatric Molecular Radiotherapy Service) unit brought into use, which will provide specialist therapy for children with certain types of cancer across Scotland.
Up until now, young patients who needed the treatment have had to travel to England.
New play and social areas have also been created using donations fundraised by former patients.
Dr Scott Davidson, deputy medical director for acute care at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, thanked staff who had looked after paediatric patients in wards 6A and 4B of the adjacent adult hospital, the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH), while the children's unit was closed.
He said: “The return to the RHC is an important moment for patients, relatives and carers, and staff, and we have put in place a comprehensive plan to ensure the move goes smoothly, and that our young patients and their families or carers are fully supported, and kept safe.
“Through the extensive work we have carried out, we are confident that we have the highest-quality and safest environment in which to look after all the needs of our young patients and their families or carers.”
The QEUH and RHC hospitals opened in 2015, but in February 2016 a child with cancer in Ward 2A developed a bloodstream infection caused by the bacteria Cupriavidus pauculus which was traced tap from a wash-hand basin in the pharmacy department where artificial nutrition was prepared.
The sink was subsequently removed, but a case note review later identified 118 episodes of bacterial infection affecting 84 patients at the children's hospital between 2015 and 2019 - a third of them seriously.
It found that a third of infections "probably" originated in the hospital environment, and that in one case this had been the "primary cause" of death.
Milly Main, a 10-year-old leukaemia patient, died in August 2017 after her Hickman line - a catheter used to administer drugs - became contaminated, leading to fatal toxic shock.
The QEUH and RHC complex is currently at the centre of a public inquiry - alongside Edinburgh's new children's hospital - into whether the design and maintenance of the facilities compromised patient safety.
Both were constructed by Brookfield Multiplex, which is being sued by NHS GGC.
The health board said the upgraded ventilation means that the air flowing into Ward 2A - as well as Ward 2B, which is used for outpatients and days cases - is filtered using HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filtration, and bedrooms will achieve 10 air changes per hour.
In addition, the system now uses a ‘pressure cascade’, which ensures that the air in Ward 2A will always flow away from vulnerable patients, out into the corridors and ultimately out of the ward.
The water supplying the unit undergoes filtration and regular dosing with chlorine dioxide "as in all areas of the hospital", but additional filters have also been added to the taps in Ward 2A/2B as "an extra level of protection".
Julie Critchley, director of NHS Scotland Assure - created in June 2021 to improve the quality and management of healthcare construction and refurbishment projects - said it was "pleased to have been able to support NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde with the successful re-opening of Schiehallion.
Tom Steele, director of estates and facilities at NHS GGC added: “Completing a project as complex as this is a huge achievement at the best of times.
"However, to carry out this work within a working hospital, and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the implications of Brexit has been a significant feat of engineering, construction and multidisciplinary teamwork."
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