Doctors’ AE safety warnings snubbed by watchdog

Aamp;E consultants at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital wrote to Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to warn patient safety was being compromised. They offered 18 months worth of evidence of overcrowding and staff shortages to back their claims. But HIS did not ask for this evidence. HIS has issued a “sincere and unreserved apology”" to the consultants and upheld two complaints about the way it handled their whistleblowing letter about patient safety.

One consultant who signed the letter said they were shocked that they ignored this and didn’t engage with us. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said improving overall patient safety at QEUH was its top priority. It is one of the country’s busiest Aamp;Es and has regularly failed to meet Scottish government targets on treating patients within four hours. There have been longstanding concerns about patient safety standards in the emergency department.

In 2022, BBC Scotland revealed how Aamp;E doctors had urged NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to declare a major incident. In May last year, 29 consultants in emergency medicine at QEUH wrote to HIS to warn that patient safety was being seriously compromised. They claimed this has resulted in “preventable patient harm and sub-standard levels of basic patient care. HIS wrote to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde chief executive Jane Grant to tell the board it was closing its investigation into the consultants.

The letter lists what the board told HIS it was doing to address the problems. It also reveals some of the internal reviews required to be carried out after significant adverse events in the hospital were “significantly overdue. consultants complained to watchdog for failing to meet them. HIS upheld a complaint that it did not provide any of the 29 doctors with the opportunity to discuss their concerns directly with its officials.

The letter referenced a meeting between HIS officials and Morag Gardner, the board’s deputy nurse director, and Scott Davidson, deputy medical director. Dr Lailah Peel, a member of the BMA Scottish Council, said doctors were increasingly seeing patients come to avoidable harm due to conditions in hospital. She said: “The fact that consultants have had to go to that level to raise these kinds of concerns - and then they’ve been essentially ignored until this point - is really, really worrying. In August last year a group of doctors complained about the lack of space in the AE department of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh.

The doctors said they had to work to a one-in-one ratio to fit in all the patients they needed. The hospital has now agreed to increase the capacity of the A E department. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde apologised for shortcomings. Spokesman said: “Our handling of the process did not include adequate engagement with the clinicians raising the concern.

We have formally acknowledged this, apologised and are committed to learn lessons.