Health minister urged to take charge

Airdrie’s MP and MSP have written to the health secretary to ask her to intervene after NHS Lanarkshire’s decision to make Gartcosh the preferred site for a new Monklands Hospital.

In their letter to Jeane Freeman, Neil Gray and Alex Neil say they are “very concerned at how this decision was reached” and ask her to commission an independent, external and comprehensive review of the proposal.

Mr Neil said: “NHS Lanarkshire appears determined to bulldoze this proposal through against the wishes of the vast majority of their patients.

“Despite their claims to be listening, the fact is the health board has acted as if it is tone deaf on this issue, refusing to contemplate an alternative site to Gartcosh.

“Yet it is blatantly obvious to all and sundry that Gartcosh is completely the wrong place to locate the new hospital.

“The only way this matter is going to be fairly resolved is by the health secretary holding an independent review of NHS Lanarkshire’s decision based on the reasons Neil and I outline in our letter to her. I hope that she will agree to our request.

“It would be wrong for the health board to proceed to the next stage of this process, given the amount of misinformation and untruths contained in its proposal, without a comprehensive review by an independent expert.

“We cannot allow the board to waste £600 million of public money by building the new hospital on the wrong site.”

Mr Gray, MP for Airdrie, added: “We have raised a range of issues with NHS Lanarkshire regarding the scoring and consultation exercises.

“On every occasion they have dismissed our concerns rather than show they are listening and understanding.

“That is why we had no choice but to ask the health secretary to review the process.

“We want to see a new hospital for Monklands. However, it needs to continue to serve the people of Monklands. We and the public fear that won’t happen if the facility is in Gartcosh.

“Given the strength of feeling on this issue, it is clear that there has to be an independent review.”