THE fire doors installed at Glasgow’s £842m super-hospital campus were faulty and could have allowed smoke to penetrate wards, it has emerged.

A hospital source has told the Evening Times that every fire door in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus, including the children’s hospital, had to be taken off because the doors had not been fitted with “fire retardant” sealant.

He said the fault would have allowed smoke to work its way around the edges of the doors and added: "I don't know how it was identified. Something must have happened."

According to our source, work to repair the doors got underway in January last year, when the hospitals had already been open for almost two years, which will raise questions about patient safety being compromised.

Earlier this week Health Secretary Jeane Freeman, announced a major investigation is to be launched into the design and construction of the hospital, which was built by Brookfield Multiplex, following the Evening Times’ call for action.

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It followed the death of a child, believed to be suffering from cancer and from the Grampian area, linked to the cryptococcal infection, which is caused by pigeon droppings. Another elderly patient was treated for the bug but her death was not linked to the infection.

The hospital has been plagued by a series of serious problems since it opened, in April 2015, including contamination of the water supply affecting the children’s hospital which led to children developing infections and being moved into the adult hospital.

It has also emerged that clinicians expressed concerns at an early stage about the ventilation system that was installed in the Shiehallion cancer unit, at the children’s hospital, which is now being upgraded in a £1.25million project. Clinicians are said to have raised fears that it was not “to the correct standard” for patients with suppressed immune systems. Paediatric cancer patients are now being treated in the children’s hospital, outwith the Schiehallion unit.

A hospital source said: “Round about January 2017, we came back to work after the holidays and there are obviously a lot of fire doors on site and apparently there had been a fault when they were fitted.

“The facings hadn’t been fitted with fire retardant sealants. So literally every set of fire doors had to be stripped back and re-done again.

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“And that was across the whole site. I think it took a period of around ten months.

“We spoke to a guy at the time, who said there was a certain amount of money put aside, so that if faults were found that would have been used for repairs but you are literally talking about 12 or 15 joiners on site for a period of ten months.

“What had obviously happened, was that nobody had checked that because it wasn’t just one set of doors, it was all the doors. Smoke would have worked its ways around the edges.

“All fire doors have got ratings on them, depending on how many minutes of fire they are built to withstand. What the guys told us, is that if there had been a fire, the smoke would have worked it way through the gaps.

"All the doors had been taken off, all the hinges.

“They have been going round recently to repaint them.

“It says to me that during the build process that wasn’t checked because it was every set of doors.”

Read more: Pigeon problems first reported at super-hospital more than two years ago

Last year it emerged the taxpayer will foot the £6m bill for replacing cladding panels at the QEUH and the children's hospital after it emerged panels similar to that used on the Grenfell Tower were used.

The Scottish Government is yet to release details about the scope of the inquiry into the hospital but has said it will look at the hand-over, design and construction of the building.

The hospital source said: “The mood on site is not great. Every day we are finding out more problems.

“I think staff are feeling that we are not being given information, we are reading things in the press.

“My question would be, are we going to find everything out. What is going to be covered up? I would say a lot of the problems are more to do with the construction of the building.

Read more: Evening Times calls for investigation after multiple problems at Glasgow's super-hospital 

“If you have a building that is only four years old, you would expect to have niggles but you would think that once you got past those issues, you wouldn’t be having problems with the doors.

“There’s been talk about the ventilation system in the Schiehallion ward which is all being replaced now.

“I heard talk that the system that was put in at the start, was identified by clinical staff as not being fit for purpose.

“People were saying that it was not suitable for patients with suppressed immune systems. It wasn’t to the correct standard.

“I think the hospital opening was too rushed. It’s compared to a hotel opening, you have a soft opening, before all the problems are worked through.”

A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: "The cabinet secretary has announced a review into the design, commissioning, construction and maintenance of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital."