Health Secretary Shona Robison has insisted that NHS boards are on track to implement the recommendations of an inquiry into a deadly Clostridium difficile (C.diff) outbreak at a hospital.
Lord MacLean’s probe into the treatment of patients at the Vale of Leven Hospital in West Dunbartonshire revealed C.diff was a factor in the deaths of 34 out of 143 patients who had tested positive for the infection during the period January 1 2007 to December 31 2008.
His report made 75 recommendations, 65 of which were directed at Scotland’s 14 health boards.
Holyrood’s Health and Sport Committee questioned whether the timetable for health boards to act on the report was “slipping”.
Ms Robison said 11 NHS boards had met 80% of the recommendations, with an average of 75% compliance across the country.
Dumfries and Galloway, Lothian and Orkney had not yet hit the 80% mark but were close, she said.
An “implementation group”, which includes patient and family representatives, had been set up to make sure the recommendations are put into action.
A separate “reference group” aimed at giving patients, families and the general public a further voice in the process is due to meet next month, she said.
Ms Robison told the committee that the Scottish Government still expected to publish its full response to the inquiry in a report in the spring.
Committee convener Duncan McNeil asked: “Are you absolutely confident, Cabinet Secretary, that the pace on this is not slipping and you are going to meet the red lines that you have placed on the boards?
Ms Robison said: “You can be absolutely assured that the timeframes that we have set out and the commitments we’ve made will absolutely be the case.
“The fact that we’ve involved the families in implementation group and the reference group should bring an external scrutiny to that, that I think is really important.
“It will absolutely not be a tick-box exercise.
“We will be monitoring and making sure that boards don’t just say they’ve done it, but we know they’ve done it, and we keep monitoring the ongoing effectiveness of the recommendations.”
Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, who campaigned alongside patients and families for the inquiry to take place, raised concerns that boards were being asked to “self-assess” themselves against the recommendations.
She said: “I want to know in my head that by the time you stand up in spring what those self-assessments say is real.”
Ms Robison said: “When I stand up I will want to have been assured absolutely that the implementation of these recommendations is real and making a difference.”
Fiona McQueen, interim chief nursing officer at the Scottish Government, added: “Although we’re saying there are some that aren’t being met, in many cases they’re almost fully met so there’s been really good progress.
“I think by the time the report is published we will be able to say with confidence that the majority will have been met.”