The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
FM accused of rolling back on her pledge to reopen Insch hospital
Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of backing off from a pledge to reopen a north-east hospital she “promised the earth to” on last year’s campaign trail.
One year on from visiting Insch in Aberdeenshire, the first minister is facing fresh calls to honour a manifesto commitment to reopen the War Memorial Hospital.
The health facility closed its doors due to staffing pressures at the start of the pandemic – a move which campaigners say has caused “great concern in the community”.
It has yet to reopen and decisions are still to be made over its long-term future, despite the promises from the SNP leader that anything less would be “unacceptable”.
Ms Sturgeon promised to reopen the hospital as part of a £10 billion “replace and refurbish” package announced during the last Holyrood election. It has since emerged the money for Insch would have to be approved “on receipt of a business case” being made.
Scottish Conservative Aberdeenshire West MSP Alexander Burnett wants the first minister to honour her election pledge by returning a “full service” to the hospital. He said: “Ms Sturgeon promised the earth to the people of this community, its local campaign group, and to the wider electorate last year. But no assistance came.
“This obviously raises questions for the public about the validity of anything else the first minister says when she visits the north-east.”
Speaking during her visit to Insch ahead of last year’s Holyrood election, Ms Sturgeon said: “I am determined Insch War Memorial Hospital will reopen and I think any suggestion it wouldn’t is unacceptable.
“While the health board is the decision-maker here, as first minister I would not find it acceptable to have a hospital like this not reopening.”
Speaking again at Holyrood in August last year, the SNP leader said she “stands by the commitments that we made on Insch community hospital”.
Alison Grant, vicechairwoman of Friends of Insch Hospital and Community, said there is “great concern in the community”. She added: “Originally the community were told it was to consolidate staffing due to the pandemic.
“Then, the community were told that any decision to reopen the hospital was to be made conditional on the outcome of a Strategic Needs Assessment.”
The group says the review of services has suffered from “repeated delays” and is currently awaiting its outcomes.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We understand that Aberdeenshire Health and Social Partnership have completed a health needs assessment with a number of options being considered.
“These issues need to be fully considered and the service solution developed and articulated in a business case which would then be submitted to the Scottish Government’s Capital Investment Group for review.
“We are fully committed to supporting services being delivered from the Insch War Memorial Hospital and we look forward to receiving the business case in due course.”
Responding to Mr Burnett, SNP MSP Audrey Nicoll said: “Whilst the Tories like to give out public money without proper checks – as we saw during the pandemic – we’re committed to protecting the public purse.
“We’re committed to the Insch Hospital and look forward to proposals for its future being brought forward.”