Time to make casualty unit a priority

Apr 17 2008

I HAVE been following the recent articles concerning Lanark Community Casualty Unit.

Mrs Gillon is correct in stating that I had spoken to Nicola Sturgeon and that “...she has assured me Lanark’s interests will be properly taken account of.”

At the time, I had been given the clear impression by Mrs Gillon that any decision over the timetable for the construction of the unit was still under discussion and that the decision about the A&E unit at Monklands Hospital, Airdrie, may impact upon that timetable.

I have since discovered that the decision to put Clydesdale Community Hospital and the Minor Injuries Clinic on hold had already been taken.

NHS Lanarkshire did indeed in The Picture of Health December 2005 proposals indicate that the new Community Hospital and Minor Injuries Clinic would be constructed in 2007.

Subsequently, however, in a follow-up document that was given approval by the Scottish Executive’s health department on March 20, 2007, a series of capital investment projects, including the new facilities for Lanark, were to be subjected to a business case review that would form the basis of an eight-year capital investment programme.

It should be noted that this decision was taken before the reversal of the closure of the A&E unit at Monklands, before the SNP formed the new government and, of course, before the May 2007 election.

The outcome of the review was to divide the projects into two phases. Carluke Health Centre was placed in the first phase but the Clydesdale Community Hospital and Minor Injuries Clinic in phase two.

Given that NHS Lanarkshire had decided upon an eight-year programme from 2007 to 2015, and that the Lanark facilities are to be part of the phase two projects, that would indicate a time-scale within the period 2011 to 2014.

So what has the SNP Government done since the election?

They have given a record level of funding to NHS Lanarkshire so that all phase one projects are funded within the period up to 2010.

In their recent capital plan, NHS Lanarkshire even identify nearly £8m of unidentified capital allocation.

If NHS Lanarkshire so choose, they have the funds available to complete the construction of the new facilities in Lanark within the 2010/2011 financial year.

I accept that this is a long delay on the initial time-scale proposed by A Picture of Health in December 2005, but it is interesting that Mrs Gillon did not announce that the construction of the new facilities had been put on hold when such a decision had been taken prior to the 2007 Scottish Parliament Elections.

Given the record funding from the Scottish Government, it is now up to NHS Lanarkshire to provide, at long last, the facilities that people in Clydesdale have been demanding.

SNP councillor George Sutherland.