Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Summit planned over Monklands
Local politicians to meet health secretary
Airdrie and Coatbridge parliamentarians will meet health secretary Shona Robison next week to put the case for Lanarkshire’s future elective orthopaedic surgery unit being housed in Monklands.
MSPs Alex Neil and Fulton MacGregor and MP Neil Gray have arranged the meeting as a consultation continues – following an interim decision to move the specialty out of the Airdrie hospital and concentrate the service at Wishaw and Hairmyres.
The three politicians this week received a response from NHS Lanarkshire chief executive Calum Campbell to their joint letter setting out dozens of “questions and concerns”, including those raised by staff.
Mr Neil, the Airdrie and Shotts MSP, said: “It’s a very detailed response and clarified a number of points; there are still some outstanding issues that we’ll keep a close eye on, but there’s a sense the health board is in listening mode.
“We’ll share the response with staff and patients to get their feedback and be certain that any outstanding issues are properly addressed.
“The health board has taken the decision to make an interim change – I’m of the view that it’s only acceptable provided that it isn’t a permanent move and that elective orthopaedics is in the new Monklands Hospital.”
A demonstration about the plans, entitled “hands around the hospital”, will take place at Monklands next Sunday, September 11, at 2pm.
Health board chief executive Mr Campbell wrote to the politicians that the new trauma and orthopaedic service set- up “was not an easy decision and was based on ensuring patient safety and quality of care.
“Failure to move to the interim model could result in a service collapse as a result of withdrawal of junior doctor training status.”
He added: “Changes to orthopaedics will not impact on the provision of A&E services at any hospital in Lanarkshire”, and also said that “the changes will not result in any reduction in bed capacity”.
Responding to questions about A&E, Mr Campbell wrote: “There will be no diminution of emergency department capacity and capability at Monklands.
“If Monklands Hospital is a person’s local ED, they should continue to go for the same conditions as at the moment; for over 98 per cent of patients, there will be no change.
“Monklands’ ED team will continue to treat the majority of fractures. The total reduction in activity will be three or four people a day [who will then be] treated at either Wishaw or Hairmyres.”
He noted that Monklands’ “wards 10 and 11, and vacated theatre sessions, will continue to be used”; and that for orthopaedic in-patients needing treatment in a Monklands speciality such as the renal department, the other two hospitals “are able to support the majority of patients without the need for inter-hospital transfer”.
Mr Campbell also wrote that the health board is discussing a system to assist concessionary bus passengers – whose tickets are only valid after 9am – heading to early appointments.
He told the politicians: “Although bus companies say they will accept concessionary tickets earlier if accompanied by an appointment card, this could potentially breach patient confidentiality; we are in discussion over the introduction of a generic card for these purposes.”
NHS Lanarkshire’s long-term plan is for Wishaw to become the orthopaedic trauma centre, with either Monklands or Hairmyres housing elective surgery, to be decided following the current public consulation.
Views are also being sought on the preferred location of the planned new Monklands Hospital, intended to open in 2023.
Mr Neil said of the parliamentarians’ meeting with the health secretary: “We’ll seek her assurance that Lanarkshire’s permanent elective centre for orthopaedics will be in a new Monklands hospital.
“We’re very focused on making sure it comes to the new hospital – it’s going to be leading edge in every sense and it’s the obvious and right place to put it.”