Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Wester Moffat site top pick for new hospital
Wester Moffat has come top of the latest scoring exercise to help determine a site for the new Monklands Hospital.
The Airdrie farmland site scored a total of 195.74 points in the postal scoring exercise carried out during July and August, with 400 patients and staff rating the three potential locations.
It came ahead of the former steelworks site at Gartcosh, which received 194.12; while the other Airdrie site at Glenmavis received a rating of 156.84.
NHS Lanarkshire is now seeking public opinion on the option appraisal and stress: “The site scores do not represent a decision by the board on the location of the new University Hospital Monklands.”
Airdrie’s politicians say the outcome has “vindicated all the campaigning” over the proposals for the planned new £400 million facility and now want Wester Moffat – which was only added to the list of potential sites in January – to be adopted as the preferred location “without any further delays”.
Participants were asked to rate the locations on the basis of travel times for patients and workers, connectivity, site contamination and impact of patients travelling from neighbouring areas of Glasgow.
Public consultation runs until midnight on October 18 and Colin Lauder, the health board’s director of planning, property and performance, said: “It is important to note that no decision has been made at this stage on the final choice for the hospital’s location.
“There are several other factors that require to be considered by the NHS Lanarkshire board before they recommend a preferred site option to the cabinet secretary for health, who will make a final decision.
“A key element will be the views we receive about the option appraisal process and its outcome, so we’d encourage the community and our NHS Lanarkshire colleagues to give us their opinions – the feedback will be considered alongside other factors including all the information we gathered during our public engagement work.”
Gartcosh had topped the original options appraisal ahead of Glenmavis in 2018 – which caused considerable public and political opposition, leading to health secretary Jeane Freeman ordering the re-evaluation of potential sites through which Wester Moffat first emerged.
Neil Gray, the Airdrie MP, said: “This result shows just how right Alex and I were to keep fighting to maintain a hospital in the Monklands area.
“We secured the review that brought Wester Moffat into the equation, and substantially changed the scoring process; without that intervention, I’m convinced Gartcosh would have been chosen as the site already.”
“This outcome has vindicated all the campaigning we and our fantastic teams have put in over the past few years, working extremely hard on our submissions to the people’s hearing and getting the number of names on the petition that we did.
“Although there is a consultation process to complete, it’s imperative that NHS Lanarkshire must now accept this result and move to the next stage in the process – the people of Airdrie & Shotts [and] the wider catchment area deserve a state-of-the-art facility to be completed with any further delays.”
Colleague Alex Neil added: “At long last, common sense seems to be breaking out – we’ve been saying for years the new Monklands Hospital has to be in Airdrie, and this survey supports our view.
“I hope we will have no more nonsense from NHS Lanarkshire suggesting Gartcosh is a suitable site – it is one of the most toxic sites in Scotland.”
Fulton Macgregor, the Coatbridge & Chryston MSP, said: “I’ll be emphasising in my representation that whatever site is selected, there need to be good transport links for all in my constituency.
“I’ll also be reiterating the point that the redevelopment of the current site to meet health needs – a commitment already secured – is a vital part of moving forward, wherever the new hospital is located.”
NHS Lanarkshire have published the full option appraisal at www.monklands.scot.nhs.uk. Send feedback to MRP. Team@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk, by phone on 01236 713348 or sent to Freepost RTEJ- HZLK-AETZ, Communications Department, NHS Lanarkshire, Kirklands, Fallside Road, Bothwell, G71 8BB.