After a "10 per cent cut" to its budget, Holyrood has urged health boards like NHS Highland to pause spending on capital projects, including Fort William’s new Belford Hospital.
"Angry and disappointed" campaigners called it a "disastrous setback", and exhorted NHS Highland not to stop work now but complete crucial milestones so a new hospital can be "shovel ready" when funds become available again.
New NHS construction projects are dependent on approval and funding from the Scottish Government. A spokesperson said last week: “The UK Government did not inflation-proof its capital budget which has resulted in nearly a 10 per cent real-terms cut in capital funding over the medium-term between 2023-24 and 2027-28.
"Our emphasis for the immediate future will be on addressing backlog maintenance and essential equipment replacement. A revised Infrastructure Investment Plan will be published in spring 2024 and all due consideration will be given to what projects can be included. In the interim, boards have been advised to pause any new capital projects.”
NHS Highland said on January 19: "There is a significantly increased pressure on the budget and a requirement for NHS Highland to revisit its plans and reach full financial recovery more quickly. We need to reduce spend substantially in 2024/25. We will ensure that in all decisions our focus is on preserving high quality, safe and effective care."
Following the news, one doctor at Belford Hospital reacted: "Bad news from Scottish Government that funding for the new hospital will not be forthcoming for the foreseeable future."
Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch SNP MSP Kate Forbes urged the health board to prioritise the project.
She said: “Given that a new Belford hospital was first pledged back in 1999, there is no doubt that the current building is not fit for purpose and also that new facilities are long overdue.
“Community campaigners and myself have fought tooth and nail to ensure that a new hospital not only came back onto the health board’s radar, but that plans have been actively progressed to the point that they are now shovel-ready.
"Considering the amount of time and finance to get the project to this stage, I would urge NHS Highland not to allow any capital review to derail this project."
The Lochaber Health and Social Care Redesign and the Stakeholders’ Group, which has now been involved with the project for eight years, felt "angry and disappointed".
Within an hour of this "disastrous setback", community stakeholders John Hutchison, Michael Foxley and Patricia Jordan met NHS Highland chiefs.
"We expressed our very serious disappointment and despair at this announcement," said Dr Foxley, an Ardgour Community Councillor, and retired GP.
"It is now almost nine years since the team bought the site. A new hospital has been planned for over 30 years. In 2018, it was due to open in 2022! In December 2023, we finally had a presentation of the clinical layout and outline architectural designs.
"Despite this announcement, we asked the NHS Highland team that work must continue on the design work. We are very close to a realistic start.
"A few hundred thousand pounds worth of detailed work will ensure that the new Belford is "shovel ready " for when capital is made available."
Engineer John Hutchison, a former chairperson of Kilmallie Community Council, explained: “Things were on track to have the planning application lodged around April and the Outline Business Case (OBC) with the Scottish Government around October.
"We would urge NHS Highland, and all our political representatives, to come together and recognise that with only a few months more work we would reach these crucial milestones.
"If that preparatory work is stopped at this point, we’ll need to start the design and OBC afresh when funding becomes available, which makes no sense at all.”
Another community stakeholder, John Gillespie, chairperson of Caol Community Council, added: "Should that current work not be completed that would be a waste of the hard effort which has been done over the last few years by both the Belford staff and our community representatives.
"Let’s press hard to get these steps concluded. We know that the Scottish Government plans to publish a revised infrastructure investment plan in the spring, so let’s aim to have the new Belford Hospital in it.”
Another community stakeholder, David Sedgwick, a retired Belford surgeon, said: "You can imagine how disappointing this setback is to us as community stakeholders and how likely it is to adversely affect the morale of the clinical staff at the Belford, who have worked so hard to develop a clinical model for the new hospital at the centre of the Lochaber Redesign project.
"Since my appointment in 1992, when I was told that I would be working in a new hospital within 10 years, there have been new hospitals in NHS Highland in Invergordon, Nairn, Oban, Bonar Bridge, Aviemore and Broadford.
"It seems ironic that the busiest of the six Rural General Hospitals in the Scottish Highlands and Islands and the second busiest in NHS Highland area should be the last to receive a redevelopment.
"The Scottish Government must step in to secure the last part of the planning so that the project can go straight ahead when the funding becomes available. If NHS Highland pull out of the project at this stage then it is likely that the compensation to the various contractors will be greater than the cost of finishing the planning."
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