The Scottish Government should demand the full findings of the first Healthcare Improvement Scotland inspection of Ninewells Hospital are published, a local MSP has said.
Dundee-based Jenny Marra called on First Minister Alex Salmond to stop a “whitewash” by making the details of the September announced visit public.
A second, unannounced, inspection took place last week and a combined report was published this week.
During First Minister’s Questions, Ms Marra said: “Why has the Government not made the original report public, when it contained serious reports of 20 elderly people lying on trolleys in corridors?
“Will the First Minister ask Healthcare Improvement Scotland to publish the original report, because failure to do so only raises suspicion that there has been a cover-up?
“Why the whitewash, First Minister?”
Mr Salmond replied by highlighting a paragraph in the report which said “progress was being made to address the issues we identified”.
He said: “The clue to this is in the title. The purpose of the reports is to bring about improvement in the standards of care in the health service, so that we can avoid the situation that has happened elsewhere, where dramatic and very difficult findings have been made in England’s health service without a process of inspection.”
Mr Salmond added: “That seems to me exactly the purpose of the process of inspection, which was initiated by this Government.
“It is important that the whole Parliament accepts that the process of inspection from Healthcare Improvement Scotland is exactly the process that is a good thing in the health service, which is prepared to see inspectors go into our hospitals so that, when deficiencies are found, improvements can be made.
“That seems to me very much in the interests of the care of the patients in our hospitals.”