Fears for patients at Monklands Hospital, which needs more than £30m of repairs

ONE of Scotland’s busiest hospitals needs more than £30m of repairs, we can reveal.

A damning maintenance report exposes the backlog of work needed at Monklands Hospital.

NHS officials reveal how resuscitation areas at the Lanarkshire facility are shut when the drains back up after heavy rain, while operations are being cancelled as a result of leaks in theatres.

The report highlights a number of safety concerns including narrow staircases which could put patients at risk.

NHS Lanarkshire has spent £35m at Monklands over the last seven years, including £19m on new theatres and critical care facilities.

However, £30.5m of repairs are still outstanding.

Directors are backing plans for a new £500m replacement hospital which former Health Secretary Alex Neil says is desperately needed.

They insist it could be built by 2023 but critics fear Monklands is being deliberately run-down as essential repairs are postponed and services moved to other hospitals.

Peter Owens, Mr Neil’s former office manager and now part of the Stop Monklands Orthopaedic A&E Downgrade campaign group, last night claimed there was “no question the hospital is being downgraded by the back door”.

He said: “Walk around that hospital and you can see the state it is in, and has been allowed to get in for years now.

“This maintenance backlog is just the latest in the drip, drip approach to the eventual closure of Monklands.

“We warned when they ripped the orthopaedic services out of Monklands it was the beginning of the end. They are hollowing it out.

“The other two hospitals in Lanarkshire were built using PFI so are too expensive to close so this makes Monklands even more vulnerable, and this talk of a new hospital at £500m when the NHS is so skint is just pie in the sky.”

Central Scotland Labour MSP Elaine Smith said: “Monklands faces a huge backlog of maintenance and continuing cuts to services. Given the hospital has already been downgraded with patients being diverted to other hospitals in the area, that simply is not good enough.”

The report into the work required at Monklands states: “The building has significant issues with drainage and blocked pipes, and with water ingress.

“Further impact includes unplanned closure of resuscitation areas due to drainage backflow, closure of inpatient areas and closure of theatres due to leaks and damage to clinical areas. This leads to significant clinical care interruption and also disruption for patients in the form of cancellations.”

It adds: “The most noteworthy issue is the lower than expected adequacy of ability to escape from fire – by today’s standards.”

The report also reveals narrow staircases “compromise the ability to provide safe patient care”.

Former health secretary and local SNP MSP Alex Neil said: “There is a commitment to have a new Monklands hospital by 2023 and these maintenance figures demonstrate just why that is so desperately needed.

“The hospital is now very old and no longer fit for purpose and while you need to spend to ensure it remains safe, you don’t want to be in position where you’re throwing good money after bad when there is a new hospital to pay for.”

Calum Campbell, NHS Lanarkshire chief executive, said: “There are parts of the hospital that we will never be able to bring up to the standards required to deliver high-quality 21st Century health care.

“Staff are working on a business case to either rebuild or fully refurbish the hospital. We will continue with our programme of backlog maintenance for as long as services continue to be delivered from Monklands Hospital.”

‘Death by a thousand cuts’ for Monklands

Staff and patients have repeatedly voiced fears for Monklands Hospital in recent years as services were relocated to other Lanarkshire hospitals.

The hospital’s adult in-patient psychiatry is the latest to be relocated after being moved to Wishaw General this summer.

The transfer of services has proceeded despite warnings that patients and their families living in Monklands have to make longer journeys for treatment and visits.

In 2007, the SNP Government halted plans to close the hospital’s A&E department but one staff member said that has not provided any long-term protection for other services.

She said: “It is one thing after another, death by a thousand cuts. Through gritted teeth, they kept A&E open but keep picking away around the ends.

“Someone can come to A&E with a broken wrist but needs to travel across Lanarkshire for orthopaedic department.

“It makes no sense unless you understand Monklands is not part of their long-term plans.”