Labour’s motion reflects the number of major service changes proposed across the NHS in Scotland. I have expressed concern to the Public Petitions Committee about the proposals for the centre for integrative care. I have written to ministers with a particular focus on the closure of the CIC clinic in Coatbridge. However, due to time limits, today I will focus on the cuts to orthopaedics and trauma at Monklands.
A decade ago, NHS Lanarkshire carried out a review of acute service delivery under the banner, “A Picture of Health”, based on the Kerr report. Several options in that review involved downgrading Monklands hospital. I remind the cabinet secretary that the review was based on the alleged lack of safety of services 10 years ago.
None of those options proposed completely closing the hospital, or indeed the A and E. Nonetheless, that attack on our local health services in Monklands was completely unacceptable to local people, as evidenced in extensive consultations, and it was unacceptable to local politicians, including me.
The decision was devolved to the health board, but the Government has a duty and a responsibility to sign off major service changes, so the Labour-Liberal coalition signed off that change—wrongly, in my opinion—and, frankly, suffered the electoral consequences.
I spoke out against my own party on that issue. I lodged a motion on the future of Monklands hospital as my last motion before the 2007 election and lodged another as my first motion after I was sworn in following the election. I have no doubt that the SNP’s election campaign to save Monklands helped it to victory in 2007; indeed, “Save Monklands” was printed on the ballot papers beside SNP candidates’ names.
One of the downgrading options at that time—option D—specifically proposed removing orthopaedics and trauma. That option was meant to have been rejected when the newly elected SNP Government demanded a rethink by NHS Lanarkshire, which resulted in the status quo for Monklands. Those proposals were rejected 10 years ago.
Only, it has not really been the status quo. The loss of paediatrics has been added to over the past decade by the loss of gynaecology and dermatology. Heart attack patients are now treated at Hairmyres hospital. What we see now is a return to the downgrading of a decade ago, with the removal of orthopaedics and trauma, again based on alleged problems with the safety of services, as the cabinet secretary pointed out in her opening remarks.
That all looks very much like death by a thousand cuts to me. There is an opportunity, right now, to call in the current cuts proposals, to consult properly and to think again.
As for the proposal to build a new Monklands hospital in 7 years’ time, of course that investment would be welcome, but perhaps the cabinet secretary can clear up some questions. Where in her Government’s budget planning is the £400 million? What does she say to the health professionals who say that a new acute hospital would cost at least double that amount? Where will it be built? If a cost has been identified, the detail on that must surely be known. In fact, Fulton MacGregor seems to know it in today’s Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser—perhaps it could be shared with the rest of us.
The promise of a new hospital cannot be used as a smokescreen to cover up the current threat of the downgrading of orthopaedics and trauma. Let us have a look at the facts about the current threat.
Orthopaedic in-patient and trauma services are being taken away from Monklands hospital, to be delivered instead at Wishaw and Hairmyres hospitals, which are at least an hour away by public transport, with no new transport arrangements being proposed for, for example, patients with limited mobility. That will be for at least 7 years, apparently. That decision was taken during summer recess with no prior public consultation and the staff were issued with redundancy notices.
Due to that, Richard Leonard and I organised a public meeting to try to get public engagement with the health board. I would expect health board members to come to a meeting that was organised by MSPs, but they chose not to attend. They cited a lack of consultants at short notice. I did not ask for a consultant—I asked for one of the board members and/or a senior official.
However, it is important to hear the views of medical professionals, particularly those who have experience of working in Monklands. Orthopaedic surgeon Sathar Thajam, who has worked at Monklands hospital for 30 years, calls the plan
“ill-advised, ill thought out, badly planned and totally unnecessary”.
He goes on to say:
“The argument that Mr Calum Campbell and the Lanarkshire Health Board put out continually, saying that there will be no disruption to the care of the elderly and the young following the closure of the Orthopaedic and Trauma unit at Monklands Hospital, is in my opinion, frankly ludicrous.”
Having spoken to other staff privately, I know that we could hear similar things from more of them were they not worried about speaking out. Some consultants have spoken out. Six at Wishaw say that it is impractical to shunt patients about Lanarkshire in ambulances, and seven orthopaedic surgeons at Monklands have made the case for the service to stay at Monklands.
The SNP can and should step in to stop this major service change, and I believe they have a duty to do so. At the very least, the plans must be halted until a full consultation on this specific issue is carried out. A meeting is a start. The people of Monklands deserve to know the full facts.
Presiding Officer, at what point does the downgrading of Monklands hospital end? Does the Government really think that people will accept promises of jam tomorrow that, frankly, are designed to try to disguise cuts today? At what point do SNP constituency members put the people whom they serve first, and demand that the Government step in to stop those cuts? I did that a decade ago. I stood by my principles; SNP members should do that now.
We know that the issue featured heavily in the recent Coatbridge North and Glenboig by-election, with Labour’s Alex McVey elected on a promise to oppose cuts at Monklands. That sends a clear message that people care about their vital local services and increasing numbers are joining the campaign to save Monklands hospital. The least that they can expect—and some campaign members are in the gallery today—is for the Government to call in the matter.
I have no doubt that people power can and will win the battle to save services and we on the Labour benches will be standing firmly with the campaigners to stop the cuts. I hope that other elected representatives will do so, too.
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