Concern over planned site for new hospital

in Airdrie, or people living in outlying communities such as Plains and Caldercruix.

Public transport services between Airdrie and Gartcosh are practically non-existent; a situation that will get worse with the further planned closure of bus routes throughout Lanarkshire.

A lot of people who live in Airdrie and the surrounding areas don’t have cars and rely on public transport to get about.

Whether as patients, staff or hospital visitors, getting from Airdrie to Gartcosh will be costly and very timeconsuming for those people who don’t have a car.

Neil Gray and I also believe that by opting for the Gartcosh site rather than one of the others which were on the original list of possible locations for the new hospital, more regard has been given to the needs of Glasgow rather than to those of Lanarkshire.

Too much secrecy surrounds this decision. Neil and I are demanding that NHS Lanarkshire publish the details of who made this choice and on what basis.

Meantime, we have requested an urgent meeting with the chair and chief executive of NHS Lanarkshire so that we can register our concerns directly with them and make it clear that, as far as the Airdrie people are concerned, Gartcosh is just not acceptable as the location for the new hospital.

Public transport services between Airdrie and Gartcosh are practically non-existent

Wrong decision Mr Neil (left), pictured with Coatbridge MSP Fulton MacGregor meeting with University Hospital Monklands staff earlier this year, has claimed the proposal to build a new hospital in Gartcosh is “unacceptable”