Cuts to Midlothian healthcare funding branded 'shameful' as 170 remain on waiting list

Labour councillors have called cuts to health care funding in Midlothian ‘shameful’ amid claims 170 people who need ‘critical’ care remain on a waiting list.

A motion to go before councillors next week calls for an additional £4m to be put into the local authority’s health and social care services, which provide support to the county’s most vulnerable residents.

And it says there is “great public anger and concern” at proposed cuts which they say include the closure of a palliative care ward in Midlothian Community Hospital, reduced travel time allowed for care workers, reduced night time support for adults with learning disabilities and reduction in number of carers required to deliver some care packages.

Midlothian Health and Social Care Partnership said, last month, the decision to close Loanesk ward at the hospital was part of a reorganisation to meet current demands with ten of its 16 beds retained in another ward and many more people preferring to receive care at home.

The council agreed its budget in February including a £75.122m payment to the Midlothian Integration Joint Board which oversees health and social care services.

At the time the Labour group had argued for a further £1.79m to go to the services with Councillor Derek Milligan telling the meeting he had heard horror stories about people being let down by a lack of services after the bar was raised to allow only the most critical cases to be considered.

Councillor Milligan told the meeting that he had been told about a case where a woman in her seventies had to carry her disabled husband to the toilet at night because she could not get a care package while another man with a wife who was bed bound and required to be turned every four hours could not get anyone to come in and help turn her.

Mr Milligan said: “We are letting down the most vulnerable people in our society.”

In the motion which will go before councillors next week Mr Milligan calls on the council to increase its funding to ensure the cuts proposed do not go ahead.

The motion, which is seconded by Councillor Russell Imrie, says: “If these cuts go ahead this will leave the most vulnerable people in our community without the care they need.

“Therefore, Council agrees to increase the offer to the IJB for the financial year 2026/2027 by an additional £4m revenue to avoid the need for many of these cuts and to help deliver care to those assessed as in critical need.”