Scrutiny Panel Report Vindicates Monklands A&E Decision

I was delighted to see that the decision taken early on by the SNP government to save the Accident and Emergency Department at Monklands Hospital - which was of course a manifesto pledge - was further vindicated today with the publication of a report by the Independent Scrutiny Panel established to review the decisions of NHS Lanarkshire that led to the proposals to close the A&E in the first place. The Panel was set up by Health Minister Nicola Sturgeon after she reversed the decision by the previous Labour/Lib-Dem administration to close A&E departments at Monklands and Ayr Hospitals.

People deserve a first-class health service, and easy access to accident and emergency services. The report has totally vindicated the decision by the SNP Government to save the department at Monklands and has also been critical of newer plans submitted by NHS Lanarkshire which would still try to close or reduce intensive care services at Monklands. These proposals received short shrift from the consultants who work in A&E in the area, and now the Independent Scrutiny Panel has said that the changing demographics in Lanarkshire "does not necessarily require a reduction in the level of emergency services (such as emergency surgery, intensive care and emergency medical services) currently provided at Monklands Hospital."

It is now incumbent upon NHS Lanarkshire to accept this report and continue to provide the full level of emergency services currently provided at Monklands.

You can read more at the following links:

http://www.independentscrutinypanels.org.uk/resources/Final+Report+Lan.pdf

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7186550.stm

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1962449.0.Scheme_to_shut_AEs_strongly_criticised_in_review.php

Monklands A&E Saved

A few days late with this post I know - but things have been pretty hectic of late. Anyway, I was absolutely delighted with the announcement made on Wednesday that the A&E at Monklands Hospital would be saved, just as the SNP promised it would be should we win the election and form the government.

A lot had been said by certain cynics that the SNP only made the promise to save the A&E out of electoral expediency and that it was a pledge that would go unfulfilled. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is that the SNP took the decision to promise to save the A&E because any reasonable analysis of health services in Lanarkshire dictate that it had to remain open.

The A&E is sited in a location of high deprivation and the associated problems that brings, such as above average levels of ill health. I doubt it can be proved that any such area which has lost its local A&E has then gone on to see improvements to the local population's health as a consequence.

Furthermore, the transport links through the NHS Lanarkshire area are such that the various communities presently served by the three operating A&Es are poorly connected. This is not to mention the overcrowding at A&E at the remaining sites if the A&E at Monklands had closed.

For these reasons and more we took the decision to save the A&E. It was the right thing to do.