Monklands Hospital: Coatbridge to Gartcosh Direct Rail Link

At the evening public meeting in Airdrie Town Hall in September, NHS Lanarkshire stated that they had had discussion with Network Rail regarding introducing a direct rail service from Coatbridge to Gartcosh to link to their proposed new hospital. On the night it was stated that this would be fairly easy and that they had an assurance from Network Rail which said that this was merely a “timetabling issue”.

I submitted two freedom of information requests on this topic, one to Network Rail and one to NHS Lanarkshire asking the same question:

“Please could you supply all correspondence between North Lanarkshire Health Board/North Lanarkshire Council and Network Rail in relation to the provision of a new rail service which would run from Coatbridge to Gartcosh via the Gartcosh Single Line.”

Network Rail responded within around two weeks, and confirmed that they had no records of any correspondence on this subject.

NHS Lanarkshire have not responded. They have until the 16th October to do so, which is sadly after the public consultation closes.

Monklands Hospital: The Tail Wagging The Dog

Letter published in the Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser

It seems quite clear that the preferred option for the location of the new Monklands Hospital is Gartcosh, despite it not even being near Monklands. The recent consultations which took place was more of a sales pitch than anything else, the only problem is, no-one wanted to buy it. The vast majority of journeys made to the hospital are by car, that’s undeniable. But the vast majority of those journeys are made by patients and their families. yet the hospital is being relocated to Gartcosh because it has a rail link for staff to get to work. This really is a case of the tail wagging the dog!

What disappoints me the most about this whole debacle is that the two main political parties in the area seem more interested in playing the blame game than coming together on an issue on which they by and large agree on. Both parties have issued petitions; the SNP against the local health board, despite having their man on the board, while Labour have issued theirs against the Scottish Government, obviously because they have representatives on the health board too. Labours’s Scotish branch leader Richard Leonard is campaigning to keep the hospital on the present site, while the SNP are campaigning to keep it in Monklands. Bizarrely the Labour candidate in the Coatbridge by-election is also campaigning, like the SNP, to keep it in the Monklands area. Confused yet? Our politicians certainly are! As for the Conservatives, if anyone knows their opinion, do let me know, as I don’t seem to be able to find it.