HEALTH board bosses kept reports on infection risks at a flagship hospital secret from the Scottish Government, Jeane Freeman has revealed.

The Health Secretary told Holyrood it was “entirely unacceptable” that documents raising serious concerns about the £840 million Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow had not been shared.

The Govan complex is under intense scrutiny over ongoing issues around infection control there.

The National: Queen Elizabeth University HospitalQueen Elizabeth University Hospital

Freeman, who took the health job in summer 2018, has apologised to the parents of two child patients who died in 2017 and told MSPs there rates of certain infections rose at the hospital between 2017 and this year.

Professor Marion Bain, the former medical director of NHS National Services Scotland, will now take over responsibility for infection prevention and control at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) the health board that runs the campus.

READ MORE: Expert takes over infection prevention and control at Glasgow hospitals

Two weeks ago Labour’s Anas Sarwar revealed NHS Estates had commissioned three separate independent reports into the water supply at the QEUH, including one in April 2015.

Yesterday Freeman confirmed those reports, produced by contractor DMA Canyon, had not been shared with the Scottish Government at the time.

Calling for Freeman to “make sure that heads roll”, Sarwar said that was “simply unforgivable” from the health board, adding: “The water supply was deemed not safe and high risk. In those circumstances that hospital should never have been allowed to open.”

The Glasgow MSP said: “Patients, parents and the public have lost faith in the leadership of the health board.

READ MORE: Queen Elizabeth University Hospital probe following child death

“Cabinet Secretary, please, those people must be moved aside to allow a genuinely independent investigation to happen.”

Freeman also slammed the health board for its approach, stating: “Action should have been taken in my opinion before patients and others moved into particular areas of that hospital.”

Highlighting the risk to some patients from infections that healthy people can “manage” with, she said: “But these vulnerable cohort of patients, these organisms are particularly dangerous and threatening to them.”

But Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs called on First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to appoint a new health secretary, saying: “Families have lost confidence in Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS and this SNP Government.

“And sadly nothing in this statement today suggests the government is actually in control of this crisis at the hospital.”

Last month, Freeman increased the Scottish Government’s level of involvement in NHSGGC, appointing a board to oversee its work.

A public inquiry has also been announced to examine issues at the site of the two hospitals.