{"id":376035,"date":"2026-01-17T23:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T23:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/376035\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T23:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T23:59:10","slug":"glasgow-superhospital-water-system-issues-probably-infected-patients-health-board-admits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/376035\/","title":{"rendered":"Glasgow superhospital water system issues ‘probably’ infected patients, health board admits"},"content":{"rendered":"

The health board had repeatedly rejected bacteria in the water at the country’s flagship hospital was the cause for some infections which led to patients’ deaths.<\/p>\n

19:46, 17 Jan 2026Updated 19:48, 17 Jan 2026<\/p>\n

\"Milly<\/p>\n

Milly and her mum Kimberly Darroch(Image: PA)<\/p>\n

Scotland’s biggest health board has admitted issues with its water system probably caused infections in child cancer patients at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital<\/a> in Glasgow.<\/p>\n

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde<\/a> (NHSGGC) had repeatedly rejected bacteria in the water at the country’s flagship hospital was the cause for some infections which led to patients’ deaths.<\/p>\n

But in closing submissions to the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry, the health board said it was likely there was a “causal connection” between infections suffered by patients <\/a>and “the hospital environment, in particular the water system”.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for NHSGGC said it was backing the inquiry while the Scottish Government said it would be “inappropriate to comment,” reports the BBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The investigation was launched to look into mistakes made in the planning, design and construction of the QEUH campus following concerns about unusual infections and the deaths of four patients.<\/p>\n

\"Kimberly<\/p>\n

Kimberly Darroch with her daughter Milly Main, 10(Image: Handout)<\/p>\n

Those included Milly Main, 10, from Lanark, who had been in remission for leukaemia <\/a>when she was infected with the rare bacteria \u2013 Stenotrophomonas maltophilia \u2013 and died on August 31, 2017.<\/p>\n

Her family believe the bug came from contaminated water at the hospital which caused a line feeding drugs into her body to become infected.<\/p>\n

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has been named as a suspect in a corporate homicide probe into Milly\u2019s death<\/a> and three others – two other children and 73-year-old Gail Armstrong – which got underway in 2021.<\/p>\n

In a closing statement to the Inquiry, NHSGGC said it had been “broadly acknowledged” there was no “definite link between infections and the water system”.<\/p>\n

But it said it was “more likely than not” some infections suffered by patients were connected to the hospital’s water supply.<\/p>\n

\"QEUH<\/p>\n

The health board said it was likely there was a “causal connection” between infections suffered by patients and “the hospital environment, in particular the water system”(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

They said: “NHSGGC accepts that, on the balance of probabilities, there is a causal connection between some infections suffered by patients and the hospital environment, in particular the water system.<\/p>\n

“It is more likely than not that a material proportion of the additional environmentally relevant BSI [blood stream infections] in the paediatric haemato-oncology population between 2016 and 2018 had a connection to the state of the hospital water system.<\/p>\n

“NHSGGC departs from its earlier submissions in this regard, having heard all expert evidence.”<\/p>\n

A Scottish government spokesperson said: “We established a statutory public inquiry so that families could get answers to their questions, and so that lessons can be learned for future hospital projects.<\/p>\n

“As an independent core participant of the Inquiry, the Scottish government is committed to assisting the Inquiry and therefore it would be inappropriate to comment any further at this time.”<\/p>\n

It comes after almost half of planned surgeries at the \u00a3842m QEUH were postponed<\/a> after a burst pipe temporarily closed theatres last week. Water leakage hit the building’s plant room and affected its power supply on January 9.<\/p>\n

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde confirmed the incident had since been resolved, but while 26 operations were able to go ahead as planned after this issue was fully resolved – 25 more had to be postponed and rescheduled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The health board had repeatedly rejected bacteria in the water at the country’s flagship hospital was the cause…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2505,59,679,57,58,102,2196,50,104,3780,143078,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-376035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-drugs","tag-gb","tag-glasgow","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-health","tag-hospitals","tag-news","tag-nhs","tag-nhs-scotland","tag-queen-elizabeth-university-hospital","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}