Monklands Hospital

Monklands Hospital, affectionally known as "The Monklands" or simply "Monklands" by local residents, is a busy district general hospital with 24-hour Accident and Emergency facilities and has 478 inpatient beds and 57 day beds in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland NHS Lanarkshire. Although technically within Airdrie, it straddles the border between Airdrie and her neighbouring town, Coatbridge.

Population
Collectively, Airdrie, Coatbridge, and their surrounding villages are called Monklands.

Monklands Hospital serves approximately 260,000 patients in the North Lanarkshire catchment area. It forms one of three acute hospitals in NHS Lanarkshire. The others being Wishaw General Hospital at Netherton, Wishaw and Hairmyres Hospital at Eaglesham, East Kilbride.

History
In 1887 Sir John Wilson bought the Airdrie House estate and it was to be the home of the Wilsons until it became the local maternity hospital in 1919. This closed in 1962 and was demolished in 1964 to make way for Monklands District General Hospital. Monklands was the first new hospital (i.e. which did not provide new accommodation for an existing hospital) to be built in Scotland in the post World War II era. Planned to be known as 'Airdrie General Hospital', it was renamed with the introduction of local council reorganisation, to Monklands District General Hospital. The first patients were admitted in 1977, however, some hospital departments were open in 1974 including the College of Nursing.

NHS Lanarkshire
NHS Lanarkshire is responsible for the health of more than 553,000 people living within the North and South Lanarkshire local authority areas.

There are three district general hospitals in the area - Hairmyres Hospital, Monklands and Wishaw General Hospital. Each of these hospitals has an accident and emergency department and provides a range of specialist medical and surgical services. Maternity, gynaecology and paediatric services are based at Wishaw General Hospital. Ophthalmology and cardiothoracics are centralised at Hairmyres.

Primary health care is provided in the community and includes general practitioners (GPs), dentists, pharmacists, health visitors and a wide range of health professionals. NHS Lanarkshire's primary care facilities include health centres and 17 community and day hospitals.

NHS Lanarkshire employs more than 12,000 staff.

The Monklands
Monklands hospital can be described as a medium-sized general hospital, apart from wards 1 and 2, all the hospital wards and departments are 'under one roof'. Wards 1 and 2 are reached through a glass tunnel. The hospital is distinctive in that it has two towers, one predominantly medical wards, the other surgical. The towers are six floors each, with a lower ground level, a ground and four floorsabove that. The lower ground contains the canteen, the pharmacy and the mortuary.

The wards, bed capacity and their specialities are:

Along with these areas, the hospital also has an A&E department and a day surgery unit. Wards 24 and 25 as Mental Health areas are under the authority of the primary Care Division of NHS Lanarkshire and are independent of the hospital. Prior to the refurbishment of the A&E department and the building of the ERU, ward 23 was an A&E short-stay ward. Ward 8 is now ward 7a which is the urology day patient's unit. Ward 11a was previously called ward 12; and there has never been a ward 13, for superstitious reasons. Similarly some hospital wards and departments do not have rooms numbered 13.

Centralised Services
As part of NHS Lanarkshire's A Picture of Health consultation on the future of service provision within Lanarkshire, the centralisation of specialist services at the most appropriate site is an ongoing process. The centralisation of services to Wishaw General and Hairmyres has been discussed.

The centralised services for NHS Lanarkshire at Monklands Hospital are:
 * Ear Nose and Throat Surgery
 * Dermatology
 * Renal
 * Infectious and Communicable Diseases
 * Urology [as of February 2006]

Acute Services Review
NHS Lanarkshire's 'Picture of Health' document suggests the downgrading to two consultant-led A&E departments, with Monklands and Hairmyres the choice for downgrading. This will lead to the removal of the ITU, CCU and possibly other services, with the concentration of emergency admissions on two sites; Wishaw being one of the two level three hospitals. The level two hospital will have a nurse-led minor injuries unit, along with performing planned surgery, full diagnostic/outpatient services and general medicine.

At a stormy meeting held in Bell College, Hamilton on June 27 a decision was made by Lanarkshire Health Board to downgrade Monklands Hospital to a level two hospital by a vote of 19 to 1. Local MSPs and MPs including the Home Secretary Dr. John Reid have vowed to contest this decision. The Board submitted the decisions taken in respect of 'A Picture of Health' to the Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care, Lewis MacDonald MSP, for consideration and approval in June 2006.

On 21 August 2006, Lewis MacDonald MSP ratified NHS Lanarkshire's "Picture of Health" proposals to a storm of protest from community groups and local politicians including the home secretary, Dr John Reid MP.