Margaret McCulloch MSP has stepped up the campaign for three new health centres in Lanarkshire, arguing that a new Hunter Health Centre in East Kilbride and new health centres in Kilsyth and Wishaw would boost the construction industry and improve local services.
The health centres were originally part of NHS Lanarkshire’s ‘Picture of Health’ proposals to deliver more services locally and promote health improvement, which were watered down after the SNP took office in 2007. There were added problems in East Kilbride when the redevelopment of the Town Centre, which would have housed the new community health facility, was abandoned by investors due to the financial crisis.
This campaign has been sparked by the recent announcement by the Health Secretary who revealed that the South West Hubco that will support capital projects in NHS Lanarkshire will not be formed until October. Margaret now urges the Scottish Government to deliver new health centres in East Kilbride, Kilsyth and Wishaw as promised by the Health Secretary.
The East Kilbride-based MSP has insisted that there can be no further delays after the Health Secretary admitted in response to a Parliamentary Question that the Scottish Futures Trust’s vehicle for overseeing the project will not be formed until October.
Margaret McCulloch MSP said:
“We have been waiting years for these three new health centres in Lanarkshire and I have now learned that the vehicle for supporting these projects and this much-needed investment will not be established until October.
“I am very firmly of the view that new health centres such as the proposed new Hunter Health Centre in East Kilbride can give the construction sector a boost and will drive up standards of care with better, modern, purpose-built facilities in the community.
“When the Scottish Government’s Capital Investment Group meets in March, they have to be made to understand that there are benefits to patients and to the public purse from investing in new community health centres, where more services can be delivered locally, instead of just extending the life of old buildings time and time again.
“There is a sense in some parts of Lanarkshire that our NHS is getting a raw deal and that the Health Secretary’s promises don’t match her actions. She says she’s protecting the NHS yet excessive bonuses for health chiefs persist, bed numbers are down and we have the lowest number of nursing and midwifery staff per head of the population despite having some of the most troubling health indicators and social outcomes.
“If these community health centres are designed and built properly, they could make a real difference to a health service that is under far too much pressure. I am urging the Scottish Government and the Scottish Futures Trust to step up the pace, to set a clear and timely target date for the completion of this project and to deliver the investment and the facilities that we need in our local NHS.”
