Lochaber makes call to be site of new medical school

Blar Mhor in Fort William, earmarked as the site for a replacement for the town’s ageing Belford Hospital, would be the ideal location for the Scottish Government’s promised new medical school.

So said Councillor Allan Henderson, Caol and Mallaig, this week, commenting on calls for the SNP administration at Holyrood to consider siting the new medical training centre in the Highlands and Islands.

In the Scottish Parliament last week, Highlands and Islands Labour MSP David Stewart questioned Cabinet Secretary for Health Jeane Freeman MSP on whether she agreed the Highlands and Islands was the most suitable location for the medical school.

Speaking afterwards, he told the Lochaber Times it would be a ‘huge boost’ for the region.

‘NHS Highland’s pledge to rebuild Belford Hospital by 2023 must have been welcome news for the staff who say they’re struggling in a building that’s on its last legs,’he said.

‘What a boost for Lochaber if the Scottish Government agreed to locate this new facility next to or near the new hospital.’

Plans for a new medical school are in the SNP’s Programme for Government.

Speaking in chamber, Mr Stewart, Labour’s shadow minister for public health, said: ‘One key aspect of NHS Workforce Planning, post-Brexit, is the creation of a new medical school, as promised by the Programme for Government.

‘Does the cabinet secretary share my view that there is a strong case to be made for the new school to be located within Highlands and Islands as part of the UHI network.

‘Does she agree this would make sense in workforce planning terms for the doctors of the future and would also send a clear message that

Highlands and Islands is a vibrant and dynamic area to live and work in?’

Congratulating him for being the first MSP to battle for the new building, Ms Freeman said: ‘As I’ve said to him and to others, I am waiting to see what offers and options come forward including from our existing medical schools which have also stepped forward in terms of telling us what it is possible for them to do.

‘We will carefully consider all of those propositions but what we will aim to do is ensure equity of access and maximum opportunity for our young people and others in Scotland to train to be a doctor and then to be employed in our health service in Scotland.’

Asked what he thought, Councillor Henderson, chairman of Highland Council’s Environment, Development and Infrastructure Committee, told the Lochaber Times he welcomed any possibility Lochaber could be considered as the location of the new medical school, saying: ‘A new medical school in Lochaber would not only bring opportunities for new high grade jobs, but give young trainee doctors a taste of the Highlands and possibly encourage them to remain after qualifying.

‘Then, going in to rural practice or in to hospitals such as the rural general Belford, would allow young doctors to sample the working

and lifestyle of Highlanders encountering a wider range of training and skills.

‘There surely cannot be another available site, such as the Blar Mhor, capable of housing a medical training school, a rural general hospital and beside the intended Lochaber College STEM centre.

‘As councillors, I am sure we could even encourage such a happening by looking at granting the community element of the site which currently sits cleared, but with no intended use, or funding stream.’

Duty

Mr Stewart added: ‘The government has a duty to the people of the Highlands and Islands to use every possible method to avert a medical staffing crisis that threatens patients and services.

‘And given the difficulty of attracting GPs and doctors to the region, a medical school could act like a magnet for those much-needed workers. I will campaign with intensity for this new medical centre to be created and for it to be located in my home constituency where it is needed the most.’