Bosses at Scotland’s biggest health board have admitted paying private investigators to spy on the relatives of dead patients.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) are using an external firm to conduct their Big Brother-style monitoring tactics on critical patients and relatives at the scandal-hit Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH).
The Sunday Mail previously revealed NHSGGC employed a scheme it calls “social listening” to check online posts of individuals they keep on a list, including people questioning what has gone wrong at the £842million super-hospital in Glasgow.
Now health chiefs have admitted they are paying a private company to conduct the spying on their behalf using taxpayers’ money.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar blasted the health board bosses. He said: “It is utterly obscene that taxpayer money is being spent this way.”
Widow Louise Slorance, whose late husband Andrew contracted an infection while being treated at the hospital for cancer, discovered both their names on the list.
Reacting to news of a private firm being involved, she said last night: “This is disgusting. NHSGGC should be carrying out their role in providing safe and effective care to the people of the west of Scotland, not monitoring dead patients on social media.”
Andrew, 49, a senior Scottish Government employee who was close to former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, died three years ago while awaiting a stem cell transplant to treat his cancer at the QEUH.
The father-of-five contracted Covid while in hospital but, unknown to Louise, also picked up Aspergillus, a fungal infection which she discovered when reading his medical notes after his death.
Scientists have linked Aspergillus to issues during the construction of the hospital, which in 2015 replaced the Southern General in Glasgow and other sites in the city.
A major public inquiry into the building of the site has heard evidence of links between the construction and infections in patients.
Louise has been a vocal critic of the NHSGGC and the Scottish Government since the discovery and has been campaigning for justice with other families who lost loved ones while in the QEUH and Royal Hospital for Children.
Since we told of spying revelations last week, health chiefs said they have removed Louise from their list but would not confirm if they are still monitoring any mention of her husband Andrew on social media or why they were spying on her in the first place.
They have also refused to say how much taxpayers’ cash they have spent on the endeavour or name the private firm they’re using for their covert operation.
Mum-of-three Louise said: “There may be no legal issue with a third party holding the data of a deceased person but it is morally and ethically wrong. “NHSGGC need to confirm the removal of Andrew’s name from this list and provide me with the company’s name so I can ensure the appropriate removal of both our data from this third-party organisation.”
Other patients and relatives involved in the QEUH scandal said they were horrified at the health board’s behaviour and demanded to know if they had been spied on too. NHSGGC insisted no other patients or their relatives were on the spying list.
Stevie-Jo Kirkpatrick, who was infected with a rare bacteria from the water supply at the hospital while being treated for cancer in 2017, has wondered if her name is on the list.
The 18-year-old, from Dumfries, said: “I was really disgusted to find out they were spying on people. It’s not right and they shouldn’t be doing it.
“It’s stressful enough to have gone through all of this. I had cancer, I got a very bad infection that left me with lesions all over me, and then my chemotherapy was stopped. All I want is to find out how this happened and spying on people is not the way to get answers or stop this happening again.”
Sarwar said the health board bosses have got their priorities wrong. He added: “The SNP cannot keep enabling this shameful behaviour from the NHSGGC leadership, which has treated grieving families with unimaginable cruelty time and time again.
“The culture of secrecy and cover-up must end now – all those involved in this appalling scandal must be sacked.”
A spokesman for NHSGGC refused to confirm if Andrew Slorance’s name was still on their spying list.
He said: “Any mention of Mrs Slorance has been removed from our social listening.
“We can confirm that no other patients or families were ever included as part of our social listening. Our social listening is undertaken by an external organisation.”
- In a clarification after publication, NHSGGC said Andrew Slorance’s name was not on the list.
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