Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
HOSPITAL SHORTLIST UNVEILED
Wester Moffat enters race for new site alongside Gartcosh and Glenmavis
An area of farmland in Wester Moffat has now entered the running to become the location for the new Monklands Hospital.
The Airdrie greenbelt land has been added to the shortlist of sites after being nominated in NHS
Lanarkshire’s public call for suggestions late last year.
The site will now be considered alongside pre- existing possibilities Gartcosh and Glenmavis, as the health board conducts a public consultation, followed by a formal scoring event in March, to decide which of the three should become the location for the new £400 million facility.
Airdrie parliamentarians Alex Neil MSP and Neil Gray MP have welcomed the latest development, saying that both of the Airdrie locations shortlisted are “ideal” and that Gartcosh – originally selected as the preferred site in 2018 – should now be scrapped as an option.
Wester Moffat has joined the list of options to become the site of the new Monklands Hospital, after being successfully put forward in the public call for suggestions by NHS Lanarkshire.
The 165 acres of farmland, east of Drumgelloch and north of Petersburn, was this week added to the health board’s shortlist for the planned £400 million development, alongside previously-identified Gartcosh and Glenmavis.
It was assessed as meeting the health board’s five criteria of being of sufficient 40-acre size, in the current catchment area and not adversely impacting on neighbouring hospitals, and being permitted for development with suitable road and transport infrastructure.
Now a 100- member panel including dozens of Monklands residents and staff at the Hospital will decide on the location of its replacement at an independently-facilitated options scoring event in March.
Monklands replacement project director Graeme Reid said: “We’re pleased that the public site nominations process proved very worthwhile, receiving 183 responses, and identified the land at Wester Moffat as a new option. Eight specific sites, additional to those we had considered previously, were suggested; Wester Moffat was the only viable option among them.
“We also received a number of suggestions that were not about any specific site, mentioning general areas and particular communities or referring to the Gartcosh and Glenmavis sites.”
He added: “We’d also like to thank North Lanarkshire Council for carrying out a search for possible alternative sites; while this process identified a further eight options, none was found to match all five site selection criteria.”
Detailed information on Gartcosh, Glenmavis and Wester Moffat – covering site history and conditions, transport and t rav e l information, and the costs of site remediation, road infrastructure costs and construction – will now be published this month, ahead of community feedback sessions.
Members of the public will then be able to take part in structured “people’s hearings” in late February to put forward any concerns about the information’s accuracy, and suggest categories for the options scoring event.
The panel will consist of 51 members of the public – including 12 from Airdrie, 11 from Coatbridge and a combined 11 from Bargeddie, Chryston, Gartcosh and neighbouring Cumbernauld and Kilsyth – and staff from Lanarkshire’s medical, nursing and allied health professions, social care partnerships and the Scottish Ambulance Service; with 16 being from Monklands Hospital.
Airdrie & Shotts politicians Alex Neil MSP and Neil Gray MP welcomed the addition of a second Airdrie site to the shortlist – and reiterated that the original top-scoring option of building at the former Gartcosh steelworks would be “unacceptable”.
Mr Neil told the Advertiser: “Glenmavis and Wester Moffat are ideally located for a new hospital, with both sites large enough to accommodate longterm expansion as well as having good transport links.
“Both would also keep the hospital within the local area; relocating to either of these sites from the existing Monklands Hospital site would be the least costly and inconvenient option for staff.”
Mr Gray called Wester Moffat “a second strong option” and said: “Like Glenmavis, it would keep the hospital in the local area, with good transport links and central to the catchment area.
“This potential site and the process going forward now fully justify the review that Alex and I secured with [health secretary] Jeane Freeman.
“I thank the team at NHS
Lanarkshire for the work to identify this new site and on the new Monklands, and look forward to continuing to engage with NHS Lanarkshire and local people to see this substantial investment in local healthcare provision realised.”
Bordered by the railway line to the west of the site, the farmland area now under consideration for the new general hospital is between Plains and Easter Moffat golf course to the north, and Inver House distillery and Caldervale High beyond its southern extent.
It is a short distance from the existing Wester Moffat hospital, an NHS Lanarkshire facility which provides long-term care for older patients.
Fulton MacGregor, the Coatbridge MSP, expressed disappointment that the former Shanks & McEwan site at Carnbroe – the subject of controversial incinerator plans for more than a decade – was discounted after being included in a site search by North Lanarkshire Council, due to its impact on neighbouring hospitals and difficulties of the constrained, narrow area.
However, he said: “I welcome the progress being made and would encourage people to participate in the ongoing discussions around these sites; and the location of a [ new] hospital is only half the story.
“I have fought for the current site to be used for something that can help meet the health needs of the area; the review team agreed with this and made it a recommendation of the report.
“I strongly encourage people to become involved in this aspect of the conversation and let NHS Lanarkshire know what type of health and social care services should be on the current site to ensure that, with a nearby state-of-the-art hospital, we have a wide and extensive range of health services in the area.”
Speaking after it was approved for consideration by the NHS Lanarkshire board, its chair Neena Mahal said: “This approval follows the recommendations of the Monklands replacement oversight board, which includes public representatives and independent members.
“We will undertake further public engagement on these potential sites for the hospital as we address the urgent need to provide a new University Hospital Monklands for the communities of Lanarkshire.”
Glenmavis and Wester Moffat are ideally located for a new hospital