Humza Yousaf has been challenged "to do the right thing" and sack the leadership of Scotland's largest health board.
The First Minister was called on to condemn the actions of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) following a series of scandals at its flagship Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
Anas Sarwar yesterday branded the board's actions "disgusting" after the Record first revealed how a communications director was alleged to have told her staff a concerned parent may have “won the battle but won’t win the war” after he raised concerns in the media.
A whistleblower, who we agreed not to name, claimed Sandra Bustillo made the remark on more than one occasion after Professor John Cuddihy spoke publicly about his daughter Molly’s case.
Cancer patient Molly fell ill at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus and went into septic shock.
Molly was diagnosed with mycobacterium chelonae, an infection in her line which came from the hospital environment.
Speaking at First Minister's Questions yesterday, Sarwar said: "It's just the latest in a litany of shameful incidents that has seen the leadership of this health board intimidate whistleblowers, engage in a cover-up, and frustrate the efforts of grieving families who are looking for justice.
"And instead of backing patients, Humza Yousaf as health secretary decided to take the board out of special measures and empower those responsible.
“The culture in this board is rotten. So rotten that their director of communications allegedly thought it was acceptable to say of a father fighting for justice for his sick daughter, and I quote, that 'he may have won the battle but [he] won’t win the war".
Sarwar also raised the issue of why NHSGGC had used an external firm to conduct their Big Brother-style monitoring tactics on critical patients and relatives.
The Sunday Mail revealed how Louise Slorance, whose late husband Andrew contracted an infection while being treated at the hospital for cancer, discovered both their names on the list of those being monitored.
She was in the public gallery of the Scottish Parliament today to hear the scandal raised at FMQs.
Asked by Sarwar why he had confidence in a health board that spied on the families of dead patients, Yousaf said: "I once again give my condolences to Louise Slorance on the death of Andrew Slorance.
"He was a colleague I worked with when I was transport minister."
He added: "I was also disturbed by the reports in the newspapers. My understanding is, as you would expect, there is a level of media monitoring that does take place by a board, particularly one the size of Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
"But, having listened to the concerns raised by Louise Slorance, I think Greater Glasgow and Clyde have taken the right action by removing her from the media monitoring they have.
"I would request they listen compassionately, and listen sensitively, to those patients that have been impacted.
"I understand they are reviewing their media monitoring and communication processes. But they should absolutely have patients at the heart of it."
Yousaf continued: "I reiterate and emphasise that any staff member who has concerns in the NHS, they should absolutely raise those issues through the appropriate processes."
On his decision to deescalate the NHSGCC, he continued: "There is a process in place. And because the vast majority of the oversight recommendations were accepted, then it was right to deescalate Greater Glasgow at the time.
"We will judge them on how they step up and accept those recommendations and implement them."
Sarwar said Louise Slorance, John Cuddihy and other families had been "treated with contempt".
"The First Minister shouldn’t have to wait for an inquiry to know that spying on the families of dead patients is wrong – he just needs to look at his conscience.
"It’s time for the First Minister to finally do the right thing and sack the rotten leadership of this failing health board."
Speaking to the Record afterwards, Slorance echoed calls for NHSGCC bosses to be sacked.
"Immediate action needs to be taken on the board," she said. "They cannot be allowed to behave in this way, with no accountability.
"I would totally support Anas' call to have the board sacked. There really is no end to what they are prepared to do to save their own reputation."
Slorance added: "I don't think the behaviour of the health board is being taken seriously enough.
"To my mind, the NHS is on its knees. It's all about money. So why are NHS funds being spent on media monitoring?
"It should be spent on pay for clinical staff, on tests, treatments etc. It's a completely inappropriate use of public funds."
A spokesperson for NHSGGC said: "We want to make absolutely clear that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has never used private investigators to spy on patients and their families.
"The practice we use, called social media listening, plays a key role in issues management for companies and organisations worldwide by offering access to publicly available online and social conversations through perfectly legitimate and internationally accepted software companies that are used by tens of thousands of private and public sector organisations every day, such as the Meltwater platform, which is used by more than 27,000 global customers including NHSGGC.
"In monitoring public conversations surrounding our organisation through social listening, we erroneously reviewed public individual posts shared by the relative of a patient. This was an isolated case for which we have since apologised to the individual and we have ceased all such monitoring."
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