ERI report to be released despite leak

A REPORT on the discredited inspection at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary will be published, despite advance notice of the visit being leaked to health chiefs.

Exact details of which wards were due to be examined were supposed to remain a secret ahead of the actual inspection.

However, health chiefs at the ERI found out where the Healthcare Environment Inspection (HEI) team intended to visit, and carried out emergency repairs.

The incident led to calls for the report to be scrapped, but HEI said it would press ahead with publication in mid-March, and that the report will combine the flawed inspection alongside an additional unannounced one carried out a week later.

The leak giving notice of the first inspection was blamed on an administrative error within HEI.

Susan Brimelow, HEI's chief inspector, said: "Inspection is not a single event but a process which starts with self-assessment of the health board's performance and ends with a published improvement plan."