SINCE a major report last month revealed "disturbing" and "appalling" conditions at a Dunbartonshire hospital hit by an outbreak of Clostridium difficile, the issue seems to have gone quiet.
But that does not mean it has gone away, with much going on behind the scenes to see whether further action is needed following the deaths of 18 patients linked to the bug.
Nicola Sturgeon, the health secretary, referred the report into the outbre
ak at the Vale of Leven hospital to Elish Angiolini, the Lord Advocate, who asked the area procurator-fiscal to consider whether further action should be taken.
The procurator-fiscal would have the power to call for a fatal accident inquiry into the deaths and could also consider whether there was a case for criminal charges.
Now it has emerged that the procurator-fiscal is well into his inquiries looking at whether further action is necessary.
A Crown Office insider said that John Watt, the area procurator-fiscal for Argyll and Clyde, had met authors of the Vale of Leven report. He has also been in discussion with the leader of the Vale of Leven C diff patient action group.
And he will meet with the group in the near future, as well as individually consulting the relatives of those who have died.
The insider said: "This is only the start of what will be a lengthy and complex investigation, which will take some time to complete.
"The results from these investigations will be reported to Crown Counsel and it will then be a matter for Crown Counsel to consider what further action is appropriate in light of the facts and circumstances which have emerged."
However, while NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board, along with patient families and politicians wait for the outcome of the inquiries, we cannot yet predict what the result could be.
The Crown Office insider said it would clearly be inappropriate to speculate about possible outcomes until the procurator-fiscal has had "the opportunity of conducting all the inquiries which he properly requires to carry out and Crown Counsel have had an opportunity to consider the outcome of those inquiries".
So while it could still be some time before we get a response, one thing still seems to be clear – the call for a public inquiry into the outbreak.
Families have been adamant from the start that what they want is for all the facts into what led to the outbreak to be laid bare for all to see.
It could become increasingly hard for the Scottish Government to ignore this request for a full inquiry.
The full article contains 446 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
