We Must Consider Every Site for the New GBP100M Yorkhill, Says City MSP Jackson Wants People From Across Glasgow to Have Their Say

By DAVID LEASK Chief Reporter

EVERY possible site must be considered for the new Yorkhill, a Glasgow MSP said today.

Labour’s Gordon Jackson wants people from across the citytohaveasayinwherea new GBP100million children’s hospital should be built.

But he passionately believes the hospital – designed to replace the unique service the Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Queen Mother’s maternity at Yorkhill – should be at the heart of his own Govan constituency at the Southern General.

The Govan MSP said: “It is right the independent group of experts and NHS Greater Glasgow should consider every possible site. That is what will happen.

It is also right people all over Glasgow should have their say.”

Other MSPs – including Mr Jackson’s Labour colleagues Paul Martin and Pauline McNeill – have expressed serious concerns over the way a site is being chosen for the new hospital.

Last week Mr Martin, who represents Springburn, called for city health bosses to call off a “weighting” exercise to be held during a six-hour marathon meeting next month.

Mr Martin and opposition MSPs believe all work on the future hospital site should be left up to an independent group set up by the Scottish Executive under Professor Andrew Calder.

Mr Jackson believes the Southern offers the best chance to achieve a vision of children’s, maternity and adult services on one site.

Hesaid: “Those of us who know the Southern and its great staff see it as the best option for our city. There are already huge improvements planned there.”

Most doctors at Yorkhill are fairly relaxed about where the new hospital will be and would be delighted if they got a brand new maternity and children’s hospital at the Southern or anywhere else.

But they are very wary about moving to a “bolt-on” children’s hospital that may not even be close to the existing rundown maternity at the Southern.

They say the only way to recreate the unique service currently under way at Yorkhill would be to knock down the Southern’s ageing maternity unit and build a new facility.

Mr Jackson rejected those concerns, saying it would be a waste of money to build a new maternity. The only other hospital in the city which has adult and maternity services is Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

But MSPs from the west, including Kelvin’s Ms McNeill and Dumbarton’s Jackie Baillie, believe Gartnavel in the west end must be an option.

It does not currently have a maternity unit but may be able to offer the kind of combined hospital that is the dream of most paediatricians.

That, however, would mean that one of the other two maternities at the city would have to close because health bosses insist Glasgow can only sustain two baby units, despite rising birth rates across Scotland.

And the Southern General, as the most rundown, would almost certainly be the easiest to axe.

david. leask@eveningtimes. co. uk