2. Next month, it will be three years since the Scottish hospitals inquiry was announced. These are the facts that we already know: first, two children died because of infections that they contracted at the Queen Elizabeth university hospital; secondly, there were serious failings by the board of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which resulted in the board being put into special measures; and, thirdly, Louise Slorance, whose husband Andrew died after contracting aspergillus, was kept in the dark by a cover-up. Despite all that, the chair and chief executive of the health board still have their jobs and no one has been held responsible.

This week, the health board, under the same leadership, has shamefully refused to accept many of the oversight board’s conclusions and has even called into question the basis of the independent review that exposed fatal infections in clinically vulnerable children. Why should people who refuse to accept even the most basic facts be trusted to run Scotland’s largest health board?

Anas Sarwar has—rightly—raised those issues on many occasions. As he said in his question, a public inquiry has been taking place in relation to a number of the issues that he has raised. It is important that we do not prejudice an inquiry that is taking place and that we wait for the full outcome of that inquiry. Appropriate action will, of course, be taken on those issues. We have made it clear that it is important that we do not wait for that inquiry to finish if we can take remedial action to improve the situation.

Anas Sarwar is right to raise a number of those issues in the chamber. My understanding is that not only have many of the oversight board’s recommendations been accepted but work on them is well under way.

It is important that members across the chamber raise such issues here. My thoughts are with all the families that have been affected by the challenges that the health board has undoubtedly faced. The Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care and I will continue to engage with the board of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to ensure that the oversight board’s recommendations are taken forward.

The First Minister misses the point, which is that we are going backwards. The health board’s leadership has said that it does not accept many of the findings of the oversight board and that it now does not accept the findings of the independent case-note review that highlighted the infections. That is the point that the First Minister is missing.

As Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, Jeane Freeman understood that grieving families needed justice. She listened to the voices of families and campaigners, put the health board into special measures and established the inquiry. When Humza Yousaf took over from her, he was too weak and easily led—he lifted the board out of special measures and empowered the people who had failed.

Less than a year later, the leadership of the board is trying to rubbish the independent review and is questioning the accepted facts.

Kimberly Darroch, whose daughter Milly Main died, has said that the board is making the families’ lives hell. Louise Slorance said:

“Enough is enough, patients have been harmed, others lost their lives. Families lied to and bullied. For what? To protect the reputation of Scotland’s flagship hospital and that of the Scottish Government.”

Will the First Minister allow the leadership of the health board to rewrite the facts and continue to prolong the agony for those families?

The First Minister:

We will absolutely hold the health board’s leadership to account in relation to the recommendations that the oversight board has made. The reason why NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde was de-escalated from special measures was that the majority of the oversight board’s recommendations had been accepted, work was under way and many of the recommendations had been completed. That is why decisions to de-escalate were made.

In relation to patients and people who have suffered—Anas Sarwar raised the cases of Milly Main and Andrew Slorance—the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care and I will be happy to meet the families who are involved. We have brought forward a number of measures to improve transparency and to ensure that families get answers. Unfortunately, in rare cases, things go wrong. In April 2018, we introduced an organisational duty of candour, which places a legal duty on all health and social care organisations to be open and honest when something goes wrong.

We also introduced the Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland Bill in response to Baroness Cumberlege’s important report. When I was the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, I made it clear that whistleblowing is an integral and important tool that staff should use in order to raise concerns when they feel that it is necessary and appropriate to do so. In my time as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, I met every single whistleblowing champion from health boards up and down the country, including the whistleblowing champion at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

We will do everything in our power and will absolutely hold the health board to account. In my conversations with the leadership of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, it certainly understood the seriousness of the issues.

In the rare times when things go wrong—the vast majority of people get a good service from our health service—the Government will ensure, on behalf of the people of Scotland, that families get the answers that they deserve.

The First Minister has not held the people responsible to account; he has empowered the people who have failed those families. Frankly, staff at the hospital, patients who have been failed and families will listen to that answer from the First Minister with rage and think that he is completely out of touch with the reality that they face every single day.

We are six years into the scandal and the established facts are being denied by a health board leadership who are prepared to do anything to protect their own jobs. Of course, that is what we have come to expect from the Scottish National Party Government. No one ever takes responsibility, and failure is rewarded with promotion. The chair of the health board is still in his job; the chief executive has been given an excellence in leadership award; the health secretary when the hospital was opened and Milly Main died is now the Deputy First Minister; and the health secretary who took the failing board out of special measures is now the First Minister. Under the SNP, failure is rewarded, incompetence is excused and the Scottish people are left suffering the consequences.

If the First Minister is too weak to stand up for those grieving families fighting for justice, how can the people of Scotland trust him to stand up for them when it really matters?

The First Minister:

This is the point: Anas Sarwar can spin in any way he wishes, but the people of Scotland have continued to trust the SNP with the health service time and again. Why have they done that? They have done that because we have invested record amounts in our health service, because we steered this country through the biggest shock that the NHS has faced in its 74-year existence and, of course, because our NHS staff are the best paid anywhere in the United Kingdom.

We value our staff. I remember quite well that, following a health debate in the chamber that I took part in, Anas Sarwar, who had led for Labour, was criticised by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde—doctors and nurses—for his politicisation of the health service in Scotland.

The decision to de-escalate NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde was made because of the evidence that we had in front of us. I am happy for Anas Sarwar to see that evidence and the details of that once again.

We will continue to make sure that, on the rare occasions when things go wrong, we do everything in our power to make sure that there is absolute transparency and that families get the answers that they want. As First Minister, I am more than happy to meet the families that Anas Sarwar mentioned, who have undoubtedly been affected by situations in which that failure has happened.