Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Thumbs-up for hospital site-scoring process
Airdrie’s parliamentarians have welcomed the news that a new and expanded site- scoring process is underway to help determine the location of the new Monklands Hospital.
The Advertiser told last week how 400 Lanarkshire residents and healthcare staff are taking part in an exercise to rate potential locations Gartcosh, Glenmavis and Wester Moffat on the basis of travel times, access to NHS regional centres, site contamination and patient flow from Glasgow.
Neil Gray MP said: “I am pleased that this whole saga is getting closer to completion – we desperately want to see a new hospital for the people of Monklands that meets their needs.”
All those who had originally nominated themselves as potential participants in the original scoring exercise are receiving letters inviting them to give their views in the enlarged two-month process, now being conducted by post and online.
Nearly three- quarters of those interested are patients and carers, with the rest being medical staff.
Submissions from the quadrupled number of people participating will then be weighted on the basis of postcodes or medical roles to follow the same previously-assigned scoring proportions – with 51 per cent of participants being patients and carers and 49 per cent staff.
The views of residents from ML6 postcode areas, in and around Airdrie, will be calculated to account for 12 per cent of the final score, with Coatbridge totalling 11 per cent and the same amount representing the combined Bargeddie, Chryston, Cumbernauld and Kilsyth areas.
Scores accounting for three per cent of the overall total will come from Bellshill and from the combined Uddingston and Viewpark areas which are also within the current Monklands Hospital catchment, along with seven per cent allocated to the Wishaw General area and three per cent representing Hairmyres.
Ratings from current staff at University Hospital Monklands will make up a further 19 per cent of the overall total, with the remaining scores coming from representatives of Lanarkshire’s other two acute hospitals, health and social care partnerships and the Scottish Ambulance Service.
The re- run comes after the March scoring exercise at New Broomfield to consider the three sites was marred by equipment failure, insufficient participants and inability to determine the geographical mix of responses, and was described by participants as a “shambles”.
Mr Gray said: “I hope this new process will be trouble-free and reflect the views of the people the hospital is meant to serve, rather than those of NHS Lanarkshire’s management.
“It is clear of the majority of people who use the hospital, most do not want to see it moved to Gartcosh. It’s crucial we listen to those who use the hospital and the local folk who work there.”
Constituency colleague Alex Neil MSP said that the politicians “will be keeping a very close eye on this process”.
He said: “The attempt by the board of NHS Lanarkshire to railroad a decision to locate the new hospital at Gartcosh has resulted in a complete loss of confidence in the board over this decision.
“The idea of building a new hospital on the site of one of the most toxic dumps in Scotland has always been absurd. We must be ever vigilant to make sure this process is carried out fairly and squarely.”
Colin Lauder, NHS Lanarkshire’s director of property, planning and performance, added: “It’s important to stress that the outcome of scoring will not be a final decision on a hospital location.
“It will be only one factor which will be considered by NHS Lanarkshire’s board, along with all of the other evidence collected during public and staff engagement, in identifying a preferred option for the new site.”
Health board members will then recommend a “preferred option” to health secretary Jeane Freeman for a final decision on the hospital’s location.