Mike Vickers' Blog

Much political angst is being written about design problems with the new / almost built new children’s’ hospital in Edinburgh and whether politicians are wholly to blame.

I accept that the buck on the Children’s Hospital stops in principle with Jeanne Freeman as it does with The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow; nevertheless, the fundamental problems in both cases must rest with the architects and their design contractors for ventilation, air conditioning and sewage.

The problems at the Children’s Hospital are not new. I note back in august 2106

“The new Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh was due to open in autumn 2017.

However, NHS Lothian now expects the date to be pushed back to spring 2018.

Dunne Group entered administration, followed by JB Brickwork going into provisional liquidation”.

If one wants an intermediary then we should be looking at the Scottish Government Officers responsible for drawing up Hospital Building contracts, how they specify them and monitoring these contracts once in place. In the case of the Royal Sick Children’s Hospital that work looks to have been subcontracted to a PFI: IHSL; a practice long since deprecated.

By al means call in Audit Scotland but please avoid making political capital out of the problems.

And let’s hope that there doesn’t have to be a demolition job. It will be remembered that the Holyrood Scottish Parliament was 4 times overbudget but is now a Scottish Show Piece.