Edinburgh Sick Kids Hospital: Hospitals inquiry told blunder which forced delay in opening was 'honest human error'

Scottish Hospitals Inquiry hears evidence on spreadsheet which gave wrong specifications on ventilation for critical care areas

The spreadsheet blunder which forced the last-minute cancellation of the opening of Edinburgh's new Sick Kids Hospital was down to "honest human error", an inquiry has heard.

The hospital, next to the Royal Infirmary at Little France, was due to welcome its first patients in July 2019, but the plans were halted after the ventilation in critical care was found not to comply with national standards. Auditors commissioned by NHS Lothian later traced the problem to an error in the "environmental matrix" which set the air flow requirements for critical care at four air changes per hour instead of ten.

Appearing at the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry, Michael O'Donnell, director of the Edinburgh office of mechanical and electrical engineer design consultants Hulley & Kirkwood, was quizzed on the paperwork for the project. John MacGregor KC, deputy counsel to the inquiry, showed him the environmental matrix and highlighted entries for critical care areas in the hospital which said there should be four air changes per hour whereas the requirement was in fact for ten and the correct figure was given on a separate document, the "room function sheet". Mr O'Donnell said the matrix entries were errors and he agreed similar errors had been picked up on an earlier version of the matrix in 2010.

The new Sick Kids Hospital at Little France opened more than 18 months late in March 2021. Picture: Scott Louden

Mr MacGregor asked: "How were these issues not picked up at this stage?" Mr O'Donnell said: "Reflecting on it, I think the room function reference sheet has in a way blinded me from actually seeing that in the department sheets. I can't explain it any other way. It has been an honest human error."

The hospital eventually opened fully in March 2021. It cost an extra £91.6 million to sort out the problems. And NHS Lothian was forced to pay £1.4m every month for the empty and unused hospital between February 2019 and February 2021 because it had already officially been handed over by the builders.

The inquiry also heard from Iain Graham, NHS Lothian’s director of capital planning and projects, who said when tenders were being evaluated, Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) – the Scottish Government body overseeing procurement – insisted on the assessment being made 60 per cent on price and 40 per cent on quality. “In previous projects we did it the other way round – 40 per cent price, 60 per cent quality – so it was a surprise to see it as part of the conditions. We did engage with SFT to say this doesn’t work for health and we would prefer more focus on the quality, but we were told in no uncertain terms the focus was the economics of the tendering process.”

Mr Graham also told the inquiry that in summer 2014, there had been “considerable tensions” between NHS Lothian and the preferred bidders for the project IHSL because NHSL were unhappy with progress on the programme and design development. The inquiry saw minutes of a special project steering board on August 22, 2014, where one of the IHSL representatives claimed IHSL were being asked to deliver much more than on other projects. “He felt that this demonstrated a ‘paranoia and lack of trust’ in IHSL.”

Scottish Hospitals Inquiry chairman Lord Brodie is taking two weeks of evidence on the new Sick Kids Hospital.

Mr MacGregor asked Mr Graham if that was a fair assessment. He replied: “It wasn’t paranoia because failure was out there – they had failed to deliver, so we were holding them to account for what they had actually bid. Lack of trust was a fair expression but it was born of frustration that the information wasn't coming forward.”

Lord Brodie, chair of the inquiry – which is also looking into what went wrong with the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow – is taking evidence on the Edinburgh hospital for the next two weeks.