North Lanarkshire Council has said it was “surprised” to learn £2.1bn plans to replace Monklands Hospital were ditched by the Scottish Government.
The local authority said it was “urgently seeking clarity” over the proposals after health secretary Angela Constance announced on Thursday that the current plans were too expensive.
The ageing NHS Lanarkshire site was due to be replaced with the University Hospital Monklands at Wester Moffat, after planning permission was granted earlier this year.
Just three weeks ago, the health board said the hospital would be partially powered by a solar farm the size of six football pitches.
But on Thursday, it emerged the Scottish Government had scrapped the plans, with the health secretary adding she couldn’t approve the plans in their current form due to the “current financial landscape”.
Angela Constance said the decision to shutter the project “had not been taken lightly”, and added the Scottish Government was “committed to building a new hospital at Monklands”.
But North Lanarkshire Council said the announcement “came as a surprise” after working closely with NHS Lanarkshire over the “long overdue” project.
A spokesperson said: “This announcement has come as a surprise as we have been working extensively with NHS Lanarkshire over the last decade on the Monklands Replacement Project and invested significant resource in the planning and infrastructure elements, which would have seen a long overdue state-of-the-art acute hospital for Lanarkshire.
“We are urgently seeking clarity about what the redesign will actually mean for modern, accessible healthcare for the people of North Lanarkshire and for the existing workforce whose hopes for a new replacement hospital were firmly aligned to improved quality of care for their patients.
“We remain committed to working closely with colleagues in NHS Lanarkshire to deliver quality healthcare and the best possible outcomes for people and communities.”
‘SNP incapable of delivering projects on time or on budget’
Thursday’s announcement prompted outrage from opposition parties, with Labour’s Jackie Baillie describing the situation as a “complete halt”.
Baillie claimed the SNP was “ditching manifesto promises” and “made promises they had no budget to deliver”.
Meanwhile, Scottish Conservative health spokesperson Miles Briggs said the SNP were “incapable of delivering any infrastructure project on time or on budget”.
He added: “Patients and staff are paying a heavy price for the Nationalists incompetence. They’re spending billions on the ballooning benefits bill while critical projects fall to the wayside.
Local SNP MSP Fulton Macgregor also expressed his surprise at the decision, adding: “The people of Monklands and wider Lanarkshire have been promised a new hospital for some time, and it’s been long documented to the road that has led us to here today.
“So, I don’t fully understand how we have arrived to where we have today.”
‘Current plans equal £5m per bed’
On Thursday, Constance laid out her reasoning for scrapping the project as it stands, claiming that the spiralling costs would have equated to £5m per bed.
Constance said: “I recognise this will be disappointing for staff and communities who have been engaging patiently for a number of years in the development of plans.
“However, having carefully considered the affordability of the full business case submitted by NHS Lanarkshire, I cannot approve it in its current form within our current financial landscape.
“The current proposal for Monklands is significantly more expensive than comparable programmes and would represent an unprecedented concentration of capital investment in a single health project. For context, that would be an estimated £5m per bed to deliver.
“This is not a decision I have taken lightly – we are fully committed to building a new hospital at Monklands.
“However, it is also my responsibility to ensure that major investment decisions are affordable, deliverable, and aligned with the future direction of our health and care system.”
Constance said the redesign for the replacement hospital will be done “at pace” and hoped a decision could be made next year.
She added urgent investment will be made in the existing hospital “to address the current infrastructure challenges staff are facing”.
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