Fight To Keep Brain Surgery Services Ends In Victory

BRAIN surgery is to continue at four hospitals across Scotland, after plans to centralise services were rejected, it was announced yesterday.

The hospitals in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee will have to work more closely together as a national service, Shona Robison, the health minister, said.

She said the Scottish Government accepted a recommendation from experts that brain surgery services should not be centralised in one place.

Campaigners had feared the review could result in them being concentrated on a single site in Glasgow or Edinburgh.

That prospect had caused particular concern in Aberdeen, where campaigners collected more than 20,000 signatures on a petition.

A trade union branded the option a “death warrant” for offshore workers. The Unite union argued that being able to airlift accident survivors from North Sea installations to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary had saved lives.

Yesterday’s decision was welcomed by MSPs in Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

Brian Adam, the Aberdeen North MSP, said: “This decision is a victory for all those local campaigners who took their case to parliament and made sure that the needs of the North-east were heard loud and clear.”

Shirley-Anne Somerville, MSP for Lothians region, said: “This is great news for the Sick Kids Hospital and a real tribute toall those who have campaigned to keep neurological services in Edinburgh.”

Announcing the decision during a visit to the neurology unit at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Ms Robison acknowledged there had been years of uncertainty.

She said: “I hope that my announcement today allays the concerns of staff, patients and families and marks the start of a period of stability.

“There was no evidence in the report to support the case for moving to a single site for neurosurgical services, a scenario which I know many were concerned about.”

She said the “innovative” plan would see all four hospitals providing services locally while promoting a “uniformity of care” that did not exist at present.

“By maintaining a neurosurgical presence in each of the units, we are directly addressing fears which have been expressed about the management of neurosurgical emergencies,” Ms Robison said.