Glasgow health board bosses have confessed to paying private investigators to spy on the families of dead patients.
NHSGGC admitted to using an external firm to conduct Big Brother-style monitoring on critical patients and relatives at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH).
Previously revealed by the Sunday Mail, NHSGGC were found to have employed a scheme called "social listening" to check online posts by individuals they keep on a list, including people with questions as to what's gone wrong at the £842million Glasgow super-hospital.
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It has now come to light that health chiefs are paying a private company to conduct the spying on their behalf using taxpayers' money, reports the Sunday Mail.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar blasted the health board bosses, saying: “It is utterly obscene that taxpayer money is being spent this way.”
Widow Louise Slorance, whose late husband Andrew contracted an infection while being treated at the hospital for cancer, discovered both their names on the list.
Reacting to news, she said: “This is disgusting. NHSGGC should be carrying out their role in providing safe and effective care to the people of the west of Scotland, not monitoring dead patients on social media.”
Andrew, 49, who was a senior Scottish Government employee was close to former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, died three years ago while awaiting a stem cell transplant to treat his cancer at the QEUH.
The father-of-five contracted Covid while in hospital but, however, unknown to Louise, he also picked up Aspergillus, a fungal infection which she discovered when reading his medical notes after his death.
Scientists have linked Aspergillus to issues during the construction of the hospital, which in 2015 replaced the Southern General in Glasgow and other sites in the city.
A major public inquiry into the building of the hospital has heard evidence of links between the construction and infections in patients.
Louise has been a vocal critic of the NHSGGC and the Scottish Government since the discovery and has been campaigning for justice with other families who lost loved ones while in the QEUH and Royal Hospital for Children.
Since being told of spying revelations last week, health chiefs said they have removed Louise from their list but would not confirm if they are still monitoring any mention of her husband Andrew on social media or why they were spying on her in the first place.
They have also refused to say how much taxpayers’ cash they have spent on the scandal or name the private firm they’re using for their monitoring operation.
Mum-of-three Louise said: “There may be no legal issue with a third party holding the data of a deceased person but it is morally and ethically wrong. “NHSGGC need to confirm the removal of Andrew’s name from this list and provide me with the company’s name so I can ensure the appropriate removal of both our data from this third-party organisation.”
Other patients and relatives involved in the QEUH scandal said they were horrified at the health board’s behaviour and demanded to know if they had been spied on too. NHSGGC insisted no other patients or their relatives were on the spying list.
Stevie-Jo Kirkpatrick, who was infected with a rare bacteria from the water supply at the hospital while being treated for cancer in 2017, has wondered if her name is on the list.
The 18-year-old, from Dumfries, said: “I was really disgusted to find out they were spying on people. It’s not right and they shouldn’t be doing it.
“It’s stressful enough to have gone through all of this. I had cancer, I got a very bad infection that left me with lesions all over me, and then my chemotherapy was stopped. All I want is to find out how this happened and spying on people is not the way to get answers or stop this happening again.”
Sarwar said the health board bosses have got their priorities wrong. He added: “The SNP cannot keep enabling this shameful behaviour from the NHSGGC leadership, which has treated grieving families with unimaginable cruelty time and time again.
“The culture of secrecy and cover-up must end now – all those involved in this appalling scandal must be sacked.”
A spokesman for NHSGGC said: “We can confirm that no other patients or families were ever included as part of our social listening. Our social listening is undertaken by an external organisation.”
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