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On 30 March 2020, the three PFI hospital car park providers at Ninewells Hospital, Glasgow Royal Infirmary and Edinburgh Royal Infirmary agreed to remove car parking charges for staff, visitors and patients initially for the three months and extended further by additional three months until 30 September 2020.

The Scottish Government have now reached agreement with the three PFI hospital car park providers to extend the free car parking arrangements by a further four months until January 2021.

This extension of free parking continues to support staff and remove the barriers to our staff working with the NHS during these unprecedented times.

Work on site has been progressing, although this has necessarily had to accommodate the fact that the hospital has remained operational during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there have been significant delays as a result of COVID-19. This has included significant challenges with supply chains and the continued effects of social distancing during construction works.

We are still awaiting the finalised programme of works but NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are expecting work to be complete in May 2021.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are treating this with the upmost priority and I expect them only to open wards 2A/2B when the Board and the Scottish Government are assured the new systems have been commissioned and validated in line with guidance and Infection Control are supportive of service commencement.

Since I announced the publication of the Terms of Reference to Parliament last week I have spoken with the Inquiry Chair, The Right Honourable Lord Brodie. I can confirm that the Public Inquiry will have a setting-up date of 3 August 2020.

The Inquiry’s Remit and Terms of Reference were published on 15 June 2020 and I was pleased to have consulted with Lord Brodie, party spokespeople and patients and families during the drafting process. The Remit and Terms of Reference make clear that the Inquiry will consider the planning, design, construction, commissioning and, where appropriate, maintenance of both the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Campus (QEUH), Glasgow and the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People and Department of Clinical Neurosciences (RHCYP/DCN), Edinburgh. It will determine how issues relating to adequacy of ventilation, water contamination and other matters adversely impacting on patient safety and care occurred; if these issues could have been prevented; the impacts of these issues on patients and their families; and whether the buildings provide a suitable environment for the delivery of safe, effective person-centred care. The full Remit and Terms of Reference of the Inquiry can be viewed at https://www.gov.scot/publications/inquiry-into-the-construction-of-the-qeuh-glasgow-and-the-rhcyp-dcn-edinburgh-terms-of-reference/ .

This is a statutory Public Inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005 meaning it will have the power to require witnesses to attend and information relating to the Inquiry’s work to be disclosed. The Inquiry is entirely independent and its conduct, procedures and lines of enquiry are a matter for the Chair. Lord Brodie has told me that he will issue a call for evidence shortly after the setting up date. The arrangements for the Inquiry have been affected by the Covid-19 restrictions, particularly with regard to securing accommodation and personnel, and we will continue to provide assistance and support as appropriate to ensure that the Inquiry is fully equipped to undertake its important work.

The Inquiry is a critical next step in seeking to understand the issues that affected both the QEUH and RHCYP/DCN. Its Terms of Reference are comprehensive and include considering the physical, emotional and other effects of the issues identified on patients and their families. The Inquiry is charged with making “recommendations identifying any lessons learnt to ensure that any past mistakes are not repeated in any future NHS infrastructure projects”.

I would like to record my thanks to Lord Brodie and I wish him and his team well in taking forward this important Inquiry.

In recent years podiatry services across Scotland have been redesigned to ensure that patients with the most urgent clinical need are seen by a registered podiatrist and those that require personal footcare are redirected to a more appropriate service. Throughout the lockdown, those with the most essential or urgent clinical needs have continued to be seen.

On 31 May 2020 we published our framework for re-mobilising our health services, “Re-mobilise, Recover, Re-design.” The framework sets out how Health Boards will follow national and local clinical advice to safely and gradually prioritise the resumption of some paused services. They will do this over the coming weeks and months, whilst continuing to protect emergency, urgent and maternity care, as well as retaining sufficient capacity for COVID-19. The reality is COVID-19 is likely to be with us for some time to come, and so the framework seeks to ensure that the successful steps taken to maintain services during the pandemic are learnt from and built upon.

We anticipate that Private Podiatry and Foot Care Practitioner services in the Community will resume during phases 3 and 4 of the easing of restrictions.

The Independent Review of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH), co-chaired by Dr Andrew Fraser and Dr Brian Montgomery, has completed its work. The Review’s final report has now been published and can be viewed at www.queenelizabethhospitalreview.scot .

I would like to express my gratitude to Dr Fraser, Dr Montgomery and the Review team for their dedication and diligence in conducting the Review and producing a report that will provide important lessons for those undertaking NHS infrastructure projects in the years ahead.

The Review has concluded that the QEUH has the modern safety features and systems that should be expected of a hospital of this type and that patients, staff and visitors can have confidence that the hospital offers a setting for high quality healthcare.

Nevertheless, the Review also concluded that patients, staff and visitors vulnerable due to immuno-suppression, or who are in proximity to patients with certain highly infectious communicable diseases, have been exposed to risk that could have been lower if the correct design, build and commissioning had taken place. The report notes that, since the building’s opening, and particularly since 2018, measures are in place, or under development, to bring about a sustained reduction in these risks.

A range of secondary effects have also been highlighted in the Review report including eroding the confidence of the public in the hospital’s ability to protect them adequately from healthcare hazards; disrupting treatment for defined groups of patients and creating additional concern for their families; providing additional workload for infection prevention and control teams, many clinical groups and management; and diverting resources and attention from the running of this large and complex facility. As I have set out in my updates to the Scottish Parliament in relation to the QEUH, an Oversight Board has been working with NHS GGC on improvements to its approach to infection prevention and control and communications and engagement. The Oversight Board is scheduled to provide its report in the summer.

The report also expresses concern that Scottish Government governance and assurance arrangements were not sufficient and did not adequately take account of the scale and complexity, and specialist nature of the building project. Plans for a National Centre that will focus on Health Hazards and the Built Environment have been welcomed by the Review. The Centre will provide greater focus and concentration of knowledge and expertise to ensure that lessons learned are applied across NHS Scotland infrastructure and that there is greater confidence in the delivery of future capital projects.

I share the Review’s admiration for the resilience of clinical staff, hospital management, patients and families in their focus on effective and high quality care, recognising the opportunities and advantages of modern hospital facilities, whilst acknowledging the significant setbacks set out in the Review report. The issues identified in the report should in no way diminish the dedication and commitment of those who provide high quality care to patients on a daily basis within the hospital.

I also appreciate that patients and families most affected by the issues raised in the report may be understandably concerned and distressed by some of the findings, particularly in relation to whether deaths may have been avoided. I would emphasise that the purpose of the Review was not an investigation into civil or criminal liability. It is hoped, however, that the report may assist in providing responses to many of the questions and concerns raised by families and provide a wider understanding of the circumstances within the hospital with regard to its design, build, commissioning and maintenance and the effect this may have had on patient safety.

The Review report is comprehensive, detailed and forward-looking, providing a large number of recommendations and lessons learned that seek to provide assurance and confidence in respect of future major capital projects. The findings and recommendations will now be the subject of thorough analysis and consideration across a range of organisations, including the Scottish Government. A formal response to the report’s findings and recommendations by the Scottish Government will be published shortly.

The report complements the work of other agencies including the Oversight Board and its subgroups and provides a wealth of information for the forthcoming Public Inquiry into the construction of the QEUH and the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh, which will be chaired by the Right Honourable Lord Brodie QC PC. I can also now confirm the publication of the Remit and Terms of Reference of the Public Inquiry, which can be viewed at https://www.gov.scot/publications/inquiry
-into-the-construction-of-the-qeuh-glasgow-and-the-rhcyp-dcn-edinburgh-terms-of-reference .

Work is continuing on setting up the Inquiry. Although some of the practical arrangements for the Inquiry have been affected by the Covid-19 restrictions, the Inquiry is on track to be formally launched in early August. I will provide a further update to Parliament in respect of the Inquiry launch date when this has been finalised with Lord Brodie.

Any need for job losses is disappointing. We fully recognise the impact that the Covid-19 situation is continuing to have on the aviation sector and anticipate it being at least five years before services are restored to pre-Covid-19 levels. While employment legislation is reserved to the UK Government, we continue to promote our Fair Work policy to improve workers’ rights and protections.

We are monitoring developments and stand ready to assist any Scottish based staff affected. I have written to Alex Cruz, Chief Executive of British Airways, to encourage him to work with us to support those staff facing redundancy. We will provide support through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment, PACE. Through providing skills development and employability support, PACE aims to minimise the time individuals affected by redundancy are out of work.

We are working with Scotland’s airports to re-establish connectivity to support business and the inbound tourism market, focusing first on the most important routes serving key markets.