'No delay' for East Lothian Community Hospital project

MSP Iain Gray has repeatedly raised concerns that the hospital will not be complete before its expected 2019 deadline.

The project was recently given the green light by the health board's finance committee while an application was made to the local authority for a building warrant.

However, Mr Gray remained concerned about the Scottish Government's funding model for delivering new capital projects.

The East Lothian MSP told the Courier: “I welcome this progress on the community hospital project.

“NHS Lothian is clearly committed to trying to deliver our new hospital to the timetable set out, which would see the whole project completed by 2019.”

That was a feeling backed by Councillor Donald Grant, the local authority's spokesman for health and social care.

He said: “I’m really pleased that NHS Lothian has taken another step forward in delivering this crucial project.

“There is a long way to go, but this latest move underlines the health board’s commitment to doing everything in its power to provide the new hospital East Lothian so desperately needs.”

Mr Gray was pleased with the commitment shown by NHS Lothian but felt the Scottish Government's commitment was “less clear”.

He added: “Switching the project to its Futures Trusts public/private finance model sent the project back to the drawing board and delayed it by years.

“Finance Secretary John Swinney has now confirmed that problems with the Futures Trust funding model are set to delay a number of capital projects.

“I want to ensure that East Lothian Community Hospital is not one of them.

“East Lothian needs this new hospital, and we have already waited too long for it.”

Discussions around plans for a new hospital, on the Roodlands site, have been ongoing for more than a decade, with the hospital originally set to open in 2009.

Six years on and work is yet to start on the complex, which would not include an accident and emergency department.

Instead, the East Lothian Community Hospital would include inpatient continuing care bed, mental health inpatient beds, an outpatient department, including diagnostics, day surgery unit for general surgery and endoscopy, as well as shared therapies, such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, dietetics and music therapy.

Health Secretary Shona Robison stressed there was “no delay” to the project.

She said: “We are committed to supporting the delivery of the new hospital, and NHS Lothian is continuing to develop its plans - which are progressing on schedule.

“On September 9, Deputy First Minister John Swinney advised Parliament that he had instructed the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) to engage with the Office of National of Statistics (ONS) to clarify the interpretation of the rules that underpinned their July decision and consider the scope for making contractual changes to the project which could secure ONS’ agreement that reclassification to the private sector would be appropriate.

“ONS have now advised that, as a result of SFT’s further engagement on the substance of their July decision, there are a number of points that they wish to refer to Eurostat for further consideration.

“SFT has submitted proposals to ONS and it is likely that they will be in a position to respond by late October or November.”