It’s like a dystopian prediction in George Orwell’s 1984 novel delivered using the technology of 2023.
Scotland’s biggest health board is spying on patients and their relatives who dare to criticise them.
Top of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s list is widow Louise Slorance, whose husband died at the troubled Queen Elizabeth University Hospital from a fungal infection which scientists have linked to the construction of the site.
She has fought for answers by asking questions across social media platforms.
The under-fire health board mired in this infections scandal has consistently misled her about husband Andrew’s death but decided they should monitor and record her tweets.
We reveal today how they are using what they call “social listening” to monitor social media posts and receive daily alerts.
And if that wasn’t offensive enough, they admit to searching for posts mentioning her dead husband’s name.
Oh, and that’s NHS public money they will be using to pay for this madness.
Can a public body sink any lower? Who else are they monitoring? The families of other children who died or became seriously ill and whose relatives have been brave enough to come forward to the Scottish hospitals inquiry?
Kimberly Darroch, the mum of 10-year-old cancer patient Milly Main, who died after contracting a water-based infection linked to the QEUH, will rightly be wondering if her daughter’s name is a search term.
She too has been a harsh critic of this ailing health board whose members and senior executives should be considering their future over this shameful episode.
Who exactly is receiving this intelligence and who gets the “alerts” and why? NHSGGC chief executive Jane Grant? Was former health secretary and now First Minister Humza Yousaf aware of this?
We don’t know because, of course, the health board and Scottish Government refuse to tell us.
But these are the families who won’t give up on getting to the truth and they will not be silenced.
They will not stop until they unearth the inconvenient truth of what really happened to their loved ones. Whether Big Brother is watching them or not.
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