HEALTH Secretary Jeane Freeman is coming under pressure to call an inquiry into Edinburgh’s troubled new children’s hospital.
The Tories have demanded public sector watchdog Audit Scotland probe the costly delay, while Labour have even called for the minister to resign.
The £150m Royal Hospital for Children and Young People was due to open last month but Freeman was forced to step in after the ventilation system failed safety checks.
Since then it’s emerged that the 200 bed building also problems with draining.
The health board has been paying around £1.4m for the empty hospital to developers Integrated Health Solutions Lothian (IHSL) under the 25-year private finance deal agreed for the new building.
It has also paid the private consortium £11.6 million in a settlement agreement.
The NHS is carrying out a review of the water, ventilation and drainage systems at the hospital, and there is, as yet, no date set for the opening of the site.
The hospital is being paid for via the non-profit distributing private finance model supported by the Scottish Government through the Scottish Futures Trust.
The total contracted cost for IHSL to design, build, finance and maintain the hospital over 25 years is £432 million.
Professor Alex McMahon, nurse director at NHS Lothian, said: “There are a number of independent reviews and investigations under way to verify and provide assurance that all aspects of the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, the Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services meet the appropriate standards before it becomes operational.
“The decision to delay the move followed the identification of a problem with ventilation in critical care.
“Given the pause in occupation, the commissioned reviews will focus on ventilation and will also look at drainage and water systems as a priority.”
He added: “An oversight board, made up of Scottish Government, NHS Lothian, National Services Scotland and Scottish Futures Trust, has been established in order to provide coordinated advice on the readiness of the hospital to open and on the migration of services to the new facility.
“The reviews and subsequent reports will be provided to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and NHS Lothian.”
Unison official Tam Waterson, who represents NHS staff in Edinburgh, warned that the building may have to be rebuilt.
He told the Herald on Sunday newspaper that the government was not listening to the unions: “We know the drainage is not fit for purpose.
“It’s been flooded twice with nobody in it. There is a school of thought that they might have to rip it down.”
He added: “My understanding is that we will not know the full extent of the drainage issues until the hospital is working at full capacity. That is a major health and safety risk.
“My big concern is we open the hospital without doing all the checks, satisfying ourselves the drainage is fine, and we then have to close the hospital.”
Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman Monica Lennon said: “We are learning more about the Edinburgh Sick Kids scandal by the day and now damning criticism of the Health Secretary from a leading trade unionist brings into question whether she can carry on.”
She added: “It must be sickening for workers in our cash-strapped NHS to see millions going down the drain and no-one is taking responsibility.
“Ultimately, the buck stops with Jeane Freeman. That the new Edinburgh Sick Kids could be ripped down before it even opens is unthinkable and a public inquiry must get under way.”
Scottish Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said Ms Freeman and the Scottish Government’s management of the situation looks “totally incompetent”.
He said the project has been “a complete farce from the start and, judging by these warnings, things could get even worse.”
Briggs said he had written to Audit Scotland “to ask them to undertake a full audit of the Sick Kids project and the contracts and specifications commission on the hospital.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Health Secretary has made clear that her greatest responsibility is the safety of patients, and for this reason decided to delay the move of patients, staff and services to the new hospital.
“Patients and carers have been contacted directly to confirm appointment arrangements and a dedicated helpline remains in place.”
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