Public inquiry ordered into delayed Edinburgh Sick Kids and Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth

The troubled project to replace Edinburgh's Sick Kids hospital will be the subject of a public inquiry.

The Scottish Government's confirmed the probe will look into the delayed facility in the capital - which is not due to fully open for another year - and the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.

The children's hospital at Little France, next to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, was due to open back in July, when eleveth-hour checks of the ventilation system uncovered safety issues.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman initially resisted growing calls for an inquest while responding to two reports into the project last week.

Confirming the inquiry this evening, she said: "The safety and well-being of all patients and their families is my top priority and should be the primary consideration in all NHS construction projects.

"I want to make sure this is the case for all future projects, which is why, following calls from affected parents, I am announcing a public inquiry to examine the new Royal Hospital for Children and Youg People and the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital sites.

"The recent KPMG and NSS reports into the new Edinburgh children's hospital will provide a significant amount of the underpinning evidence for the inquiry alongside the ongoing independent review into the delivery and maintenance of the QEUH."

"The current situation is not one anyone would choose - but it is one I am determined to resolve."

A child and another patient died at the Queen Elizabeth in Glasgow after picking up an infection related to pigeon excrement and there have been several patients affected since.

Opposition parties have been reacting to the news tonight.

Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Miles Briggs said: "This announcement is long overdue and it's only come about because the SNP hierarchy has become fed up of negative headlines.

"The ongoing problems at both hospitals are consequences of SNP negligence of the NHS, which has gone on for more than a decade.

"It is now vital that the public inquiry reports as soon as possible and considers the decisions taken around these projects by all four SNP health secretaries.''

Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said: "This is a welcome but long overdue U-turn from the Health Secretary.

"As the first party to call for a public inquiry into this fiasco, Scottish Liberal Democrats have consistently demanded better for patients than the SNP's excuses and evasion.

"The series of incidents at the Queen Elizabeth University hospital have been of the gravest magnitude, while the Sick Kids hospital has racked up bill after bill and delay and delay.

"Quite simply, we cannot have young patients being treated in facilities that are not up to scratch.''

"It is vital that this public inquiry now moves forward in a way that complements and does not further delay the opening of the Sick Kids hospital.

"Public trust in these projects must be urgently restored.''

Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Monica Lennon said: "A public inquiry is the only way to get to the bottom of this outrageous series of errors, which has seriously disrupted patient care and cost taxpayers millions of pounds.

"It should not have taken weeks of pressure from Scottish Labour, patients and families for this to have been agreed to by the Health Secretary.

"Children in Scotland are being let down because the hospitals they were promised are not fit for purpose."