Lanarkshire NHS Decision's Major Impact on Fourth Valley

The proposed closure of the Monklands A & E will have a significant impact on the new Acute hospital in Larbert warns Michael Matheson MSP.

That was the clear message delivered to local health chiefs by local SNP MSP, Michael Matheson recently.

Lanarkshire NHS has confirmed that the closure of the Monklands Accident and Emergency Department will see throughput at the proposed new Larbert hospital rise by over 20% as a consequence. Now Michael is demanding answers from Forth Valley Officials over the capacity of the new hospital to meet increased demand.

Forth Valley NHS has recently appointed a preferred developer to build the new hospital after two years of design work and competition. Now Michael is demanding to know how much of that design work has been wasted due to the need to revisit the original specification.

Michael is also seeking assurances from the Labour / Liberal Executive that they will meet any additional costs incurred by the local health board due to Scottish Executive decisions to centralize health services.

"We have gone from having 15 A&E units across west central Scotland to a proposal for 8. That is a cut in anyone's language but my concern is that not only will the Lanarkshire NHS decision have an adverse impact on the Larbert Hospital but also have the potential to delay the commencement of the construction due to commence in January 2007.

It's clear that the local Health Boards are being controlled and manipulated by the Labour Liberal Executive who's main agenda appears to be to close hospitals and centralize services."