Hospital meeting packed

Dozens attended a public meeting about Monklands Hospital run by Elaine Smith and Richard Leonard, the Central Scotland MSPs.

They were joined by representatives of the campaign group opposing the plan to move trauma and orthopaedic services away from the Airdrie hospital, locating the specialty across Wishaw and Hairmyres until the longer- term creation of single trauma and elective sites.

Opponents of the move say it amounts to “downgrading” of the hospital and are particularly concerned for its A&E department; with Sunday’s meeting in Coatbridge coming a week after hundreds attended a protest outside the hospital.

Ms Smith said: “This proposal adds to the ‘death by a thousand cuts’ approach to Monklands Hospital.

“I’m proud to say I fought tirelessly to stop the downgrading of Monklands A&E a decade ago; just as I will now fight proposals to remove orthopaedics and trauma services from our hospital.

“A £ 400 million proposal for a new hospital at an as- yet unconfirmed site has been put forward by the SNP government, but the business case for such a development hasn’t even reported; failure to guarantee this development while moving services to Wishaw and Hairmyres is a continuing issue of concern.”

She said there were “passionate defences of the hospital evidenced throughout” the meeting, where panel members also included independent Strathkelvin councillor Frances McGlinchey, Dr Krishna Singh and Peter Owens of campaign group Stop Monklands Orthopaedic A&E Downgrade.

Labour colleague Mr Leonard read a statement opposing the plans from retired Monklands orthopaedic surgeon Dr Sathar Thajam – who spoke out in last week’s Advertiser about his concerns over the impact of the service changes – saying: “This should not be allowed to happen.”

Ms Smith noted that no SNP politicians attended the “crossparty” event.

Three of Monklands’ parliamentarians – Alex Neil MSP, Fulton MacGregor MSP and Neil Gray MP – last week stated: “The health secretary [has] reiterated the Scottish Government ’s commitment to Monklands as a Grade 1 hospital and ‘guaranteed’ all three A& E departments in Lanarkshire.”