Queen Elizabeth University Hospital infections scandal: Have ministers deleted their WhatsApps again?
Scottish Government should take steps to ensure relevant information about infections at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital is preserved
We recently wrote calling for the Scottish Government to release all relevant information about the opening of Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, amid claims health officials were pressured into doing so too quickly and that this may have contributed to infections and deaths of patients.
Today Scottish Labour will lodge a motion requesting that ministers publish and preserve records relating to the hospital’s ventilation system, contaminated water supplies, the allegedly “premature opening” and subsequent communications about how the infections were handled.
Pointedly, the party is also asking whether any communications – such as emails, texts and WhatsApp messages – have been deleted.
During the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, it emerged that some leading SNP politicians, including John Swinney and Nicola Sturgeon, had engaged in the mass deletion of WhatsApp messages, despite requests to preserve information to assist the inquiry.
Some voters will have believed protestations that nothing important was lost. However, if something similar has happened in relation to the QEUH infections scandal, it may become increasingly difficult to maintain that benefit of the doubt. Scotland needs to know and has a right to know what went wrong.
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