Professor John Robertson OBA
Still in the headlines for BBC Scotland:
Scotland’s largest hospital has apologised after a bereaved family was given the wrong body for a cremation ceremony. Morgue staff at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow passed an incorrectly labelled corpse to undertakers.
The mistake was only realised after the funeral service and cremation. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde blamed human error and said that the staff involved had been suspended.
First reported by the Scottish Sun, external, the family who thought they were cremating their loved one are said to be inconsolable. The mistake also denied another family the chance to have their relative’s remains for a funeral.
I’ll be quick.
Does this happen often?
Never. No reports ever.
Has it happened in NHS England?
A 2017 study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine analyzed 132 serious mortuary incidents reported across the NHS (UK-wide) from 2002 to 2013. It identified around 21 cases where the wrong body was released to families, of which 9 resulted in burial or cremation of the wrong body (requiring exhumation in burial cases). These were described as rare, averaging less than one per month across the entire NHS (!): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5814035/
How about ‘Serious mortuary incidents’ in NHS Scotland?
No other publicly reported serious incidents involving NHS Scotland hospital mortuaries (e.g., wrong body release, organ retention without consent, or significant mishandling) appear in news archives or regulatory reports prior to the 2025 Glasgow case. https://x.com/i/grok?conversation=2005242321785286929
Finally, Scotland’s biggest hospital more generally?
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I sympathise with the family. This is, probably, more than the journalists do, who are using this as an opportunity to re-run a regular theme of hostility to the QEUH and, by association, the Scottish Government. Not only does BBC Scotland report this sad event, which is, in all likelihood the result of an individual human error, but it also repeats other issues relating to the hospital since it opened.
By repeating these issues, the media and, in all likelihood, “Scottish” Labour, are seeking to indicate that there is a systemic flaw in the QEUH and its management.
QEUH is a huge organization with 10000 employees and treats thousands of inpatients and outpatients each week in a wide range of departments. Almost all of these are dealt with satisfactorily. Sadly, because many of those being treated by the hospital are in poor health and, in many cases, elderly, a number of patients die, as we all do, eventually. For the families of the deceased these are distressing experiences and the sense of loss causes some to seek people to blame.
And, taking advantage of this are the hyenas of our baleful media and opposition politicians.
It is right that fatalities be reviewed as a routine so that lessons can be learned and practices improved. Sometimes, well tried and effective practices can result in an adverse outcome because the particular circumstances are so rare that it was difficult to have foreseen them. It is from things like this that continuous evaluation leads to learning and improvement of future practice.
For journalists and opposition politicians, it is not improvements they want. They want to BLAME. They want, in the nasty, baleful terminology they deploy, HEADS TO ROLL. Their attitudes are performative.
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Well said. Though it’s not ‘our media’, it’s their media the hostile biased BritNat propaganda unit posing as media.
The opposition politicians, BritNats, oppose anything and everything good that the Scottish government does, it’s all by design, all very sinister, and incredibly anti Scottish, anti Scotland, in fact.
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What would the situation be if this major hospital wasn’t there, simply wasn’t built? Would that suit the BritNat media, their pal Wes down in London must be chomping at the bit to get his grifting, greedy talons into the Scottish NHS. He’s wrecking the English NHS, taking it down, and the US corporations will take the booty, the infrastructure, publicly paid for, as gratis. A US system, where people die on the street because they have no access to healthcare, non whatsoever, no thanks!!
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In addition to the media, there are other players in this – the health service trade unions such as the BMA, RCN, etc, including those unions who represent clerical staff, cleaners, maintenance, etc.
Most of the adverse publicity about the QEUH originates from them as part of the perpetual power struggles between the various groups.
When the QEUH was being built a very substantial sum was provided to support local groups in the vicinity of the hospital. The unions managed to restrict the amount going to local groups to a tiny fraction, while the rest was acquired by them.
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I think you should take break for the sake of your mental health. Also, let’s be honest, saying “but it’s worse in England” is never a good deflection. I’m tired of the endless games of comparison.
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Is John’s mental health not good? The reason comparison is made about the differences between the subjects covered here at TUS, is to counter the incessant disgraceful lies and propaganda used against Scotland, and against the SNP.
It’s to show people that Scotland is not the basket case as portrayed every damn day, by the BritNats in the so called main media. Scotland is demonised, ridiculed and their government labelled as incompetent, and not worthy.
Things are ‘worse in England’, I see articles about their NHS being a mess, their privatised water being contaminated while the private companies are getting away with making huge profits and planning to keep contaminating the drinking water in England for the foreseeable future. No thanks!!
Yes thanks to having John counter the daily incessant lies about Scotland!! I don’t know what we’d do without him.
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Exactly. And in any case, Mr McIntosh is not forced to visit this site and read the articles if they don’t suit his mindset.
I look in every day on an elderly friend who gets a ‘Scottish’ Daily Express given to her ‘for the crosswords’. The rest is unread, so I regularly have to consign the whole appalling rag to the recycle bin, and the huge banner headlines each day are atrocious. Attack after attack on the Scottish Government/SNP, for the most part spurious nonsense. This is blatant Anglo-British propaganda designed for a very specific purpose and the Express is not alone. Sadly, there are those who read the stuff and believe it. Democracy this is not.
J & J
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