EDINBURGH’S Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion was deemed unfit for purpose in 2015, with plans agreed in 2018 for a replacement.

Planning for the £45million project was at an advanced stage when, in December last year, the SNP Government pulled the plug on the project’s funding.

This is a significant blow, with patients in East Lothian potentially facing trips to Livingston or Clydebank.

Celebrated eye surgeon and former clinical director of the pavilion Dr Hector Chawla, the man who saved Gordon Brown’s sight, this week described the decision as “an act of vandalism”.

This latest funding farce is typical of the SNP’s record on health projects in Lothian.

East Lothian suffered a 10-year delay to our new community hospital in Haddington after ministers switched the project from traditional public funding to private finance. To compound the long delay, SNP ministers also refused to listen to concerns about the removal of some local services previously provided at the old Roodlands Hospital.

However, the worst example of SNP bungling on local health projects has been the new Edinburgh ‘Sick Kids’ hospital. This was also switched to PFI funding by then Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon.

Originally due to be completed in 2012 at £150m, the building was further delayed in 2019 due to ventilation problems and is still yet to open. Work to bring it up to standard will result in increased repayments to the private consortium behind the project, with the price tag over the next 25 years expected to total £432m.

Over the last year, we have all witnessed the importance of the NHS. Remobilising the service after Covid should be among the top priorities for the next session of Parliament, with projects like the new eye hospital being at the heart of the recovery agenda.