Vale Hosptial enquiry delays cause 'untold damage' to families

Jackie Ballie MSP raised her concerns last week on what would have been the fifth anniversay of the start of the Vale of Leven Hospital Inquiry.

Raising a motion in the Scottish Parliament, Jackie said that while the publiction of the long awaited report is imminent, relativies are still in pain.

She added: “Significant delays in reporting have caused untold damage to the families who lost loved ones almost seven years ago.

“Five years after it was announced families are going through the pain of their loved ones’ deaths, without answers. They are still waiting for a £10million public inquiry to report. It’s imperative that the findings of this report are available as soon as is possible, and I call on Health sectretary Alex Neil to use every means at his disposal to ensure it’s speedy publication.” The inquiry was investigating the treatment of 63 patients at the hospital between December 1, 2007 to June 1, 2008, of whom 31 died.

Of these deaths, clostridium difficile (C-diff) was identified as a cause of death or contributory factor in 28 cases.

The inquiry began in 2009 and a report into the findings had been expected to be made available by May 2011, but there have been five delays.

In February the Reporter revealed Lord MacLean, chairman of the inquiry, had asked for yet more time from the Health Secretary.

Michelle McGinty, who lost her mother-in-law to the bug at the Vale and campaigned on behalf of the C-diff Families for Justice Group, added: “This has been a long five years for the families.

“We understand and appreciate the inquiry team had a job to do and wanted it to be a full and frank investigation, we now just want the pain to end and the answers to why we needlessly lost our loved ones.

“Hopefully there is now an end in sight and we can feel that our fight for justice and answers is over and we can end our grieving and move on with our lives.”