Plans to close a hospital accident and emergency department in Lanarkshire were dropped by health bosses today. With video
Plans to close a hospital accident and emergency department in Lanarkshire were dropped by health bosses today.
NHS Lanarkshire Health Board agreed to safeguard all three of its A&E departments, including the threatened unit at Monklands Hospital.
The recommendations outlined in a report by planning director Ian Ross were rubber stamped at the board meeting in Hamilton today.
The decision is subject to four changes, including the establishment of a special unit at Hairmyres Hospital to which all heart attack patients would be taken directly, rather than being taken first to their local hospital and then transferred to Hairmyres if necessary.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon overturned previous plans to close Monklands A&E shortly after the SNP came to power last May and ordered a review by NHS Lanarkshire.
Board chairman Ken Corsar said following today's decision: "I will be in a position to write positively to the cabinet secretary with the recommendation and the issues to be pursued.
"I would expect to have a decision sometime by the end of February when a statement will be made to Parliament and at the same time to the board."
The proposals drawn up by NHS Lanarkshire outlined three options for development, including one that involved downgrading the A&E unit at Monklands.
Described as the "preferred scenario", option B proposed cutting emergency surgery and critical care at the hospital.
A&E consultants working in the area raised clinical concerns about the plan, however, and an independent report was also strongly critical of the proposal.
Two other options, known as F and G, were also rejected.
Option F suggested keeping the status quo of three A&E departments across Wishaw General Hospital, Monklands Hospital and Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride, with no changes to inpatient services.
Option G suggested providing emergency services on three sites but allowing concentration of some inpatient specialities on fewer sites.
The review recommended that "...existing emergency care services at Monklands should be retained, subject to the changes described, and that there should be no significant change to the current configuration of emergency services in NHS Lanarkshire".
The four changes include the establishment of a cancer centre at Monklands to provide effective treatment to cancer patients and better links to the Beatson Cancer Centre in Glasgow.
Plans for the development of an emergency response centre will continue and changes will be made to ensure the 18-week referral to treatment target can be met by 2011.
Several members of the board expressed concerns over the cost of implementing the changes and the effect on patients of the redevelopment of Monklands while remaining a functional hospital.
Chief Executive Tim Davidson told members: "It is doable. Up and down Scotland old hospitals have been redeveloped in situ.
"We should not pretend to ourselves that it is not doable. We will get there."
Mr Davidson said that the financing of the changes would be discussed at a March meeting after the board had received notice of its future cash allocation.
