Fears Of 25% Cuts At Flagship New Children’s Hospital
Senior doctors fear the size of Scotland’s flagship new children’s hospital is to be cut by up to one-quarter amid soaring building costs. The Herald understands NHS planners no longer believe they can deliver a promised 40,000sq metre replacement for the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill with a £100m grant pledged by the Executive in 2004.
Officials have told senior clinicians they are now looking at ways of cutting the floorspace of the new unit to as little as 30,000sq metres and have even said they are exploring a public private partnership.
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Previously, it had been assumed the hospital would be built only with public funds. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has been forced to plan the hospital just as construction industry inflation takes off, fuelled by Glasgow’s ongoing regeneration and the 2012 London Olympics.
The body has refused to answer questions on the cost, size or shape of the proposed new Yorkhill, which will be at the Southern General campus in Govan. Its planners, however, have spelled out some of the implications of rising costs to doctors and other key decision-makers working at Yorkhill.
Clinicians have raised concerns that the proposed hospital will not have enough beds to cope with what is expected to be an increased caseload: the new Yorkhill will cater for adolescents as well as its current child patients.
Doctors and other professionals have approached Sandra White, the Glasgow SNP MSP.
Ms White said: “The staff have told me they are already working at 90% capacity and if they are downgraded in the way they have been told they will be at 110%. That could be catastrophic.”
Labour MSP Pauline McNeill, whose Kelvin constituency includes the current Yorkhill campus, has also been briefed by concerned clinicians.
She said: “It is not surprising that the initial costings we had three years ago have been hit by inflation. We have really got to do everything possible to find a solution to this.”
Doctors yesterday asked not be named in The Herald, citing what they described as an aggressive response from managers against clinicians who have spoken out in the past.
An official spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde declined either to confirm or deny plans to downsize the new hospital by 25%.
She said: “It would be wholly inappropriate for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to put in the public domain details of a multimillion-pound hospital build project that has not yet been considered by the board.
“The outline business case is not yet complete and the questions asked by The Herald would pre-empt any proper and due process. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has stated clearly that it is planning to build a new children’s hospital integrated with a new adult hospital and maternity unit on the South Glasgow hospital site that will deliver first-class facilities and care for patients well into the future.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Executive said: “Glasgow is set to get a gold standard new children’s hospital, backed with £100m of executive investment.
“Detailed planning is ongoing by (the health board) in consultation with clinicians. We retain a close interest in this project. Before we sign off proposals, we will want to be sure the project offers the highest quality of care.”
