Replacement Monklands Hospital plans deemed 'too expensive' as plans to be redrawn

Plans to deliver a replacement Monklands Hospital at a cost of £2.1bn have been scrapped, as the health secretary branded the plans 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.

Glasgow & West

Planning approved for ‘most advanced hospital in Scotland’

Plans to replace University Hospital Monklands with a new ‘state-of-the-art’ building have been approved by North Lanarkshire Council.

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”.

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.”

‘Staff will be bitterly disappointed’

Scottish Labour Health spokesperson Jackie Baillie described the situation as a “complete halt”.

She said: “The people of Lanarkshire and the hardworking NHS staff will be bitterly disappointed with this announcement.

“This is not a reset – it’s a complete halt.”

Baillie claimed the SNP was “ditching manifesto promises” and “made promises they had no budget to deliver”.

She added: “The SNP needs to start being honest with the public and set out clear timescales for delivering this badly needed hospital.”

Meanwhile Scottish Conservative health spokesperson Miles Briggs MSP said: “The SNP are incapable of delivering any infrastructure project on time or on budget – and that includes a hospital in the former health secretary’s own constituency.

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.

“John Swinney must come clean on when the new Monklands Hospital will be delivered and how much it will cost the taxpayer.”

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”.

But local SNP MSP Fulton Macgregor admitted he could not say that “he was happy with today’s announcement”.

The Coatbridge and Chryston MSP said: “As the health secretary will be aware, Monklands Hospital urgently needs (to be) replaced, and there have been various concerns raised about the ageing infrastructure, water contamination, and asbestos.

“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.”