Professor John Robertson OBA

From BBC Nottinghamshire today, the above and:

The care given to a 45-year-old man with disabilities who died from sepsis after not being given the correct medication for 34 hours has been described as a “shambles” by his mother. The father of two – named only as Graham – was taken into Bassetlaw Hospital in Nottinghamshire with an infection in November 2022.

An investigation by Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) noted doctors did not follow advice from the mother, care home staff or paramedics to give him intravenous (IV) antibiotics rather than oral as it was not confirmed in writing. The report has now concluded his death was avoidable and he could still be alive if he had been given the correct IV antibiotics earlier. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjrjq2vw3gzo

There’s no mention of the Health Secretary or his Tory predecessors nor of the Labour or Tory governments where, in Scotland bucks stop, it seems.

Here’s how one Sepsis death was reported in BBC Scotland’s Scotland-as-you-need-to-hear-it:

Headlining on BBC Scotland 28 August 2025, the above tragic case and:

Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the death of a young woman seven years after she became seriously ill with a hospital-acquired infection in Glasgow.

Molly Cuddihy, 23, died in the high dependency unit of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in the city on Tuesday.

In 2018 Molly developed septic shock while receiving cancer treatment at the same hospital campus, which is now at the centre of a public inquiry into safety issues.

Not anywhere in the quite long report, important context which even student journalists are taught to include.

How under Scottish Labour, hospitals were ‘death traps’ of hospital acquired infections and how Nicola Sturgeon sorted it

The prevalence of HAI was 4.9%, 2.5%, 6.1% and 1.2% in acute, non-acute, paediatric and independent hospitals respectively [in Scotland in 2006]. https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(12)00277-0/abstract

The most recent comprehensive data on hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) in Scotland comes from a 2021 study led by Glasgow Caledonian University, commissioned by the Scottish Government. This study, published in the Journal of Hospital Infection, found that approximately 1% of hospital patients in Scotland develop HAIs annually, equating to about 7,500 patients each year. This incidence rate is notably lower than previous UK estimates (7.8%) and recent European figures (3%). https://www.scotpho.org.uk/health-conditions/infections/data/healthcare-associated-infections/

So, hospital acquired infections under the SNP are between a fifth and a half of the level in 2006, under Labour, an eighth of the level in England and a third of the level in Europe.

Why, so good?

 In Scotland, the decision was taken in 2008, against the background of major problems in British hospitals with infections resistant to treatment. The Scottish ministry of health [Health Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon] banned any further contracting-out of these services, so that when existing contracts expire all work returns and remains in-house. It also financed the employment of 600 extra cleaners to raise standards of cleanliness.https://www.epsu.org/article/uk-hospital-cleaning-brought-house-scotland-wales-n-ireland

New research shows that NHS hospitals that employ private cleaners are associated with a higher incidence of MRSA, a ‘superbug’ that causes life-threatening infection and has previously been linked with a lack of cleanliness…on average, the incidence of MRSA infection between 2005 and 2009 was 2.28 in every 100,000 bed days in trusts that outsourced their cleaning, compared with 1.46 bed days in trusts that used in-house cleaners –.a difference of almost 50 per cent. 

The research was conducted by the University of Oxford, with the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. 

http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2016-12-21-nhs-hospitals-outsource-cleaning-%E2%80%98linked-higher-rates-mrsa%E2%80%99August 6, 2025johnrobertson834health, history, news, nhs, politicsEdit