Dr Christine Peters

Harvest of apples and an unidentified 2 year old something that smells like cabbage. Crumble and soup coming up

Prosecutions are important to achieve. The root causes in culture need eradicated. Attitudes in recruitment , why does it take so long for behaviours and actions to be discovered and penalised, did anyone tolerate what they should not have? Why does it take brave women to force through justice?

I heard Barack Obama speak in Glasgow at an evening of serious, considered and intelligent conversation. One name was not mentioned, but was there in everyone’s minds as the ludicrous and frightful reality that parades in nonsensical half sentences across the pond. The juxtaposition was sobering

📢 PhD opportunity in Edinburgh: Soil carbon change and fungal-bacterial mechanisms in tree planted upland ecosystems. Funded by NERC E5 DTP for September 2027 start. Apply before Dec 2nd. Please share. e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk/project?item...

“Since the incident we have learnt lessons” Good What about culture ? Truthful content of public statements? Is that now embedded and shared as a key lesson ?

It took a year post discovery of an issue to fix it. Staff suffer. looking back to 2022 news report the trust stated “"We have taken immediate action to resolve the situation and an investigation is underway." - see the BBC 2022 article. Do NHS comms need basic lessons in truth v fiction ?

Telling it as it is is not scaremongering. If unpleasant truths are camouflaged due to misplaced ideas justifying paternalistic spin improvements won’t happen. BTW “safe” is a meaningless term. Is it as safe as we expect in a resource rich country? Is it less safe for some, or over time?

There have been other brand new hospitals with problems. Often the harm is indirect and unmeasured and undervalued. Delayed admissions and operations are extended pain, anxiety, disruptive and progression of disease . But who’s counting ?

This has been a hard story for journalists to cover - complex inter layering of science, national building standards, patient loss, staff fear, balancing public right to know and accusations of undermining confidence. Add to that political high stakes, police inquiries. But lessons need outing.

Environmental house mould poses risks to human health and not something to ignore or belittle.

Tick boxy performances achieve diddly squat. racism? Do something, don’t bury it as an too difficult to tackle issue Also consider intersectional “isms” that sneak up and fail to get spotted

Everyone should be fighting for Universal Healthcare and disability rights. Health is fragile. You can become disabled or chronically ill in an instant. It’s not a moral failing. It can wipe out your savings and leave you destitute. Healthcare is a basic human right.

Not a fun virus

"At least 50 health workers have died after contracting the virus." This shouldn't be happening. People shouldn't be dying when the go to work to help others. We should have better OHS procedures for HCWs in the Congo. Independent inquiry, now.

9 years after Grenfell fire killed 72 people, Police pass files to the Crown Prosecution Service for possible charges against 54 individuals and 20 companies. How many will be prosecuted? Years of litigation will follow. Justice delayed is justice denied.

There is a devastating trend in the world of prevention of infection that presents not looking, not counting, not communicating as fixing a problem. Is it stupidity? Or a deep malice against accountability and actually giving a toss about stopping people getting ill ?

"Narrow definitions of credible evidence, which prioritised clinical and epidemiological evidence over findings from aerosol science, delayed incorporation of knowledge on airborne transmission despite emerging interdisciplinary evidence" www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

deregulation of housing standards & environmental protections aren’t free, we all bear the costs www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

I reckon it’s only an emboldened NHS workforce that will change culture. All levels. All professions. Bold enough to say things as they are, and so enable ways to make things better. Waiting for permission to change things won’t work. It just lets the energy ebb away and harms accumulate.

Funnily enough I recall giving evidence by way of an anonymous (on public website) paper on infection risks of the hospital built environment back in 2019 to the Health and Sports Committee. I did point out the lack of resources. Buildings don’t fix themselves. Many competent hands are needed.

Whenever a health care building does meet standards - the key immediate step is to understand fully what the defect means for patients and staff safety. For infection control that requires entirely transparent processes that comprehend sources and routes of transmission. Water, air surfaces,tasks.

Medical regulation needs to be sensible, rapidly responsive and put patients first. So much room for improvement. www.bbc.com/news/article...

“There has been countless inquiries dating back 30 years, with thousands of recommendations made…most of these have not been implemented - and, when they have, it has taken too long or progress has not been tracked” Restructuring and political non will partly to blame. We need better.

Quickest way to loose trust is to count in non transparent ways. From waiting times to outbreaks- health related figures need to be scrupulous in their definitions, sources and timely publication. There is a fear that “the public” can’t cope with truthful counting. Anything less is manipulation.

The normalisation of deviance is profoundly embedded in situations of reducing resource. How can we counter falling standards? Simply no point in self and public delusion is there ?

If you consider it ok to be mean to patients and threatening to staff …. Get out of healthcare You are not welcome there …. That’s the message the politicians are too pathetic to enforce. Does the NHS simply reflect the culture of the ruling classes ? It’s a worry.

The normalisation of a leadership culture that denigrates patients and stigmatises staff who raise concerns leads to deaths of vulnerable innocents. We know that. So why do these scandals fester under belligerent medicine unfettered, impervious to common decency and basic justice ? Regressive

How can Directors refuse to co operate with reviews? And who allows that kind of behaviour ? Scrutiny has got to be part of good medical practice - surely ?

In 2026, we should not be reading such stories With vaccines, we can avoid such deaths and protect health The Measles-Stricken Mother Who Lost Her Newborn Son www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/...

The Patient Safety Commissioner joins the conversation It’s one thing to be crushing down staff who raise concerns (bad) and another to crush patients (worst contemptible) it is not uniform across the NHS, but it is not possible now to reapeat woeful lines about “expectation” - time to deliver.

We need a national body that is independant of government and NHS as a regulator for healthcare in Scotland. Anything less than that is feeble governance.

While resource is limited - utter radical candour with the public is the only progressive approach to managing healthcare. @angelaconstance.bsky.social Pretendy culture change won’t cut it. Expectations are easy - evidence of healthy culture is the deliverable required.

The Scottish Government would do well not to ignore the @bma.org.uk and many other sources of information that point to a gap between “expectation” and reality. I’ve warned before and do so again - all the crumbling medical and health organisations are complicit is allowing cultural rot to set in.

Dr Kennedy BMA chair Scotland is spot on to say go to the media if you have to when urgently raising patient safety issues. In Scotland it’s the media who have the guts to try to hold the NHS and government to account on health. No-one else seems able to get these scandals into the daylight .

There is no point in failing to be upfront about shoddy healthcare infrastructure in the worry that fixing it will bankrupt the NHS Face our problems openly and upfront with all the taxpaying public - what should we do next ? Carry on first word medicine in decrepit estate ? Or get a long term plan

Disappointment Building good hospital infrastructure is expensive Building substandard risky buildings is cheaper We need serious thought and open discussion about the public purse and building for safety and longevity of infrastructure Self delusion re standards being met cheaply is past

www.bbc.com/news/article... The question that always needs asked is “did staff raise concerns?” If so - what happened ? If not - why ? Culture creates progress or regress. As money get tighter in the NHS we need better culture, not worse

If you wait long enough it finally happens.

Statistical significance and infection prevention Does outbreak management require big infection numbers large enough to achieve statistical significance to prove interventions worked? Opposite of prevention in my view “release us from the trap of letting ignorance trump knowledge”

Very useful part on risks of mould in the hospital setting “Water ingress may go under-reported and, as such, may be an underestimated source of fungal healthcare-associated infections” pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33636256/

It’s time the NHS and GMC put in place some decent systems of investigation and listen to patient voices in the process. There are certainly viscous people who see vindictive revenge as normal process. Externalise all NHS scrutiny and governance.

www.infectioncontroltoday.com/view/droplet...

For the sake of clarity, as lots of people are asking me : I am not an ICD in NHSGGC I have not resigned I am continuing to work as a Consultant Clinical Microbiologist post Scottish Hospitals Inquiry hearings All my evidence is in the public domain I stand by it.

Incredible substance here from @chrischirp.bsky.social. The 2nd wave of COVID-19 in the UK was a) devastating and b) avoidable. Take time to play the clip of Prof Kevin Fong who breaks down when describing the scale of death and its impact on ICU staff. christinapagel.substack.com/p/the-uk-cov...

The problem with NHS decision making is the question is not “does it work?” but “is it cost effective” We have got used to knowing what best practice can achieve, but not achieving it because of the playing off of what a £ can do here versus there Individual benefit weighed against public

HAISCRIBE is based on evidence and experience of how things go wrong from an infection risk point of view throughout every stage of construction. This is old knowledge. Why would it not be adhered to ?

Disappointing doesn’t cover it At what point will the building of hospitals pay heed to the already well established standards and methods of safe construction? There is determination NOT to learn. A headlong rush to deteriorating standards is not a progressive society Well done the whistleblower!

“These observations show that AMR is not a crucial driving factor in the prevalence of a lineage in specific patient populations or disease manifestations” Neonates and E. coli invasive disease. Complexities of pathogen dominance - It’s not all about antibiotic use, virulence factors illuminate.

Brian Devlin my friend is gone and I am heart broken I miss his warmth, wisdom, friendship and solid support as I navigated the hideous realities of NHS whistleblowing He was light and love Irreplaceable model of ethical living in a messed up world www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/nhs-and...