Public Inquiry

Scottish Hospitals Inquiry

Status: Ongoing Chair: Lord Brodie Established: Jun 2020 Commissioned by: Scottish Government

Statutory inquiry into planning, design, construction, commissioning and maintenance of Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Glasgow and Royal Hospital for Children and Young People Edinburgh. Interim Report published 4 March 2025 with 11 recommendations on Edinburgh hospital ventilation failings and NHS …

Response breakdown

11 recommendations total

100%

11 (100%) — Accepted

Reports & milestones

Reports

04 Mar 2025 11 tracked recs Scottish Hospitals Inquiry Interim Report · Tracked recommendations

Timeline

22 Jan 2020 Inquiry Announced Scottish Government announced inquiry into construction of QEUH Glasgow and Royal Hospital for Children and Young People Edinburgh.

24 Feb 2020 Chair Appointed Lord Brodie appointed as Chair of the Inquiry.

25 Aug 2020 Terms of Referenc… Terms set to examine planning, design, construction and maintenance of the hospitals. · Source

21 Feb 2022 Hearings Begin First phase of public hearings commenced. · Source

01 Jan 2025 Hearings Continue Evidence hearings continue throughout 2025.

Recommendations

11 shown (filtered)

Code	Recommendation	Addressed to	Response
SHI-1	Communication strategy for patients and families Health boards must ensure that in the event of any adverse situation that could affect the wellbeing of patients and their families, …	Scottish Government	Accepted	View →
SHI-2	Risk assessment on funding model changes Accordingly, in situations where the funding model or procurement route changes mid project, a risk assessment should be conducted to assess whether …	Scottish Government	Accepted	View →
SHI-3	Clarity in brief for healthcare facility construction It is critical that a health board formulates and then presents its requirements for the key building systems in a proposed healthcare …	Scottish Government	Accepted	View →
SHI-4	Standard form for derogations from guidance The evidence before the Inquiry from the public sector (including NHSL), and industry, indicated that a standard form of derogation for use …	NHS Scotland Assure	Accepted	View →
SHI-5	Streamlining NHS construction quality procedures A range of procedures now exists to help ensure health board projects meet appropriate standards. One is the NHS Scotland Design Assessment …	NHS Scotland Assure	Accepted	View →
SHI-6	Information on common construction errors It is important that common project errors are not repeated. One helpful step is to ensure health boards undertaking projects have information …	NHS Scotland Assure	Accepted	View →
SHI-7	Independent validation of hospital construction It is clearly desirable that a health board has the assurance prior to the handover of a new or refurbished healthcare facility …	Scottish Government	Accepted	View →
SHI-8	IPC role specifications and staffing levels I accordingly recommend that priority be given to protecting scarce IPC resources. With that objective in view, what is expected of consideration …	Scottish Government	Accepted	View →
SHI-9	Documentation of technical adviser advice I accordingly recommend that a similar procedure should be considered when technical advisers (particularly engineers) are providing specific technical advice in relation …	Scottish Government	Accepted	View →
SHI-10	Uniform policy for obtaining technical advice This issue was highlighted in the Grant Thornton report where similar recommendations are made to what is set out above. NHSL has …	Scottish Government	Accepted	View →
SHI-11	Training for IPC professionals engineers and clinicians I would recommend that IPC professionals should receive some basic training on the recommendations made by the NHS's own guidance for engineering …	Scottish Government	Accepted	View →