THE WIDOW of a former Scottish Government official who died after contracting Covid and an infection at a hospital has accused Nicola Sturgeon of failing to act to ensure other families do not suffer - and has called for all information on her husband’s case to be made available to her.
Andrew Slorance died in December 2020 after being admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow for cancer treatment – but contracted Covid-19 and a fungal infection.
Mr Slorance’s widow, Louise Slorance, was not told about the infection and instead found out after reading through her husband’s medical notes after he had died.
She has spoken out about her experience, claiming that “the hospital remains a serious risk to vulnerable patients like Andrew”.
At First Minister’s Question’s yesterday, Labour leader Anas Sarwar called on the First Minister to act after pointing out a string of concerning incidents at the hospital – accusing Ms Sturgeon of proceeding over “the worst scandal in the devolution era”.
Miss Sturgeon insisted that she “will do everything possible to ensure that Andrew’s family get the answers that they are seeking”, but pointed to the ongoing public inquiry elated to the hospital, insisting action should not be taken before the independent probe has concluded.
But Ms Slorance has spoken out against the First Minister’s response, warning that “we have lost Andrew forever”, stressing “we need to prevent what happened to him happening to others”.
She said: “Every minute the First Minister waits to take action on the QEUH risks more families having to endure what we, and many other families, have gone through. Action needs to be taken now.
“To date I have received three batches of medical notes over a 10-month period, and I still have no information as to why Andrew was moved from preventative anti-fungal treatment to active treatment in mid-November."
Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS said that it was “confident that the appropriate care was provided”, adding that “we have been open and honest” with the family “and there has been no attempt to conceal any information from them".
But Ms Slorance has rejected this response.
She said: “This is not transparency, this is not honesty and it will not stop these type of events happening in the future.
“As has become clear to me since Andrew’s death, the health board are selective in the information they provide.
“I ask that all information shared with Scottish Government regarding Andrew’s case is shared immediately with myself, including the aspergillus case review which despite requests is yet to be shared with me.”
Scottish Labour health spokesperson, Jackie Baillie, said: “Louise, and all the families who have campaigned against the failings at the QEUH, have shown real bravery.
“The very least the First Minister could do is take action to make sure the ongoing risk is dealt with and future patients are spared their torment.
“These failings happened on Nicola Sturgeon’s watch."
Se added: “She was health secretary when the hospital was commissioned and built and she was First Minister when it was opened.
“She cannot hide behind the process of a public inquiry to avoid taking action now to make this hospital safe.
“To honour the work of people like Louise she must rebuild trust in the wake of a culture of cover-up, secrecy and denial.
“A good place to begin that work would be to finally demand the resignation of the leadership at Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel