Monklands Hospital

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Monklands Hospital NHS Lanarkshire
Location
Place	Airdrie North Lanarkshire, Scotland, (UK)
Organisation
Care System	Public NHS
Hospital Type	District General
Services
Emergency Dept.	Yes Accident & Emergency
Beds	535
History
Founded	1977
Links
Website	Homepage
See also	Hospitals in Scotland

Monklands District General Hospital, is a district general hospital in Airdrie ^[1], North Lanarkshire, Scotland ^[2]. Administered by NHS Lanarkshire^[3]; it serves a population of approximately 260,000 people of North and South Lanarkshire council areas ^[4]. The hospital has recently been in the Scottish media^[5] due to the decision to downgrade the accident and emergency A&E department and subsequent reversal of this decision by the newly elected Scottish Government.

Contents 1 History 2 NHS Lanarkshire and the Monklands catchment 2.1 Population 2.2 The Monklands 2.3 Centralised Services 2.4 Acute Services Review 2.5 References

[edit] History

In 1887 Sir John Wilson Bt JP - a late 19th century businessman and local politician - bought the Airdrie House estate. Upon his death, he bequeathed the land to the people of Airdrie and became the local maternity hospital (Coatbridge and Airdrie maternity hospital) in 1919. This closed in 1962 and was demolished in 1964 to make way for the current Monklands District General Hospital ^[6].

Monklands was the first new hospital, that is, one 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 District General Hospital'^[7], 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.

[edit] NHS Lanarkshire and the Monklands catchment

Main article: 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. 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 seventeen community and day hospitals ^[8].

[edit] Population

Collectively, Airdrie, Coatbridge, and their surrounding villages are called Monklands. Monklands District Council was the local government district until the abolition of the two-tier local government system and creation of unitary authorities in 1996 with the passing of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 ^[9]. The hospital entrance is technically in Airdrie, however the hospital itself straddles the border between Airdrie and her neighbouring town, Coatbridge ^[10].

Monklands Hospital serves approximately 260,000 people in the North Lanarkshire catchment area, including the major towns of Airdrie, Coatbridge, Cumbernauld, Bellshill, Viewpark, Newhouse. It forms one of three acute hospitals in NHS Lanarkshire. The others being Wishaw General Hospital in Wishaw and Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride ^{[11] [12]}.

[edit] 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:

Ward/Area	Speciality	Number of Beds
Ward 1	Renal	12 inpatients + day case patients
Ward 2	Communicable Diseases	30
Ward 3	Formerly Paediatrics	CLOSED
Ward 4/SRU	General Surgery and Surgical Receiving Unit	34 (12 SRU + 22 Ward)
Ward 5	Surgical High Dependency	8
Ward 6	Breast and General Surgery	24
Ward 7	Urology	34
Ward 9	ENT	28 + 2HDU beds
Ward 10	Orthopaedics	24
Ward 11	Orthopaedics	20
Ward 11a	Geriatric Orthopaedic Rehab. Unit (GORU)	24
Ward 14	Endocrinology & Nephrology	24 (12 endocrinology + 12 renal)
Ward 15	Haemato-oncology	10 + day patient beds
Ward 16	Dermatology	18 inpatient + day patient beds
Ward 17	Respiratory	24
Ward 18	Coronary Care Unit and CCU Stepdown	8 CCU + 14 Step-down
Ward 19	General Medicine/Gastroenterology	22
Ward 20	Acute Elderly Medicine and Rehabilitation	24
Ward 21	Acute Elderly Medicine and Rehabilitation	20
Ward 22	Acute Stroke Unit	26
Ward 24	Psychiatric Unit	24
Ward 25	Psychiatric Unit	24
Ward 26	Intensive Care Unit	6
ERU	Emergency Receiving Unit	36

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.

[edit] 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]

[edit] Acute Services Review

NHS Lanarkshire's 'Picture of Health' document suggested the downgrading to two consultant-led A&E departments, with Monklands and Hairmyres the choice for downgrading. The level two hospital will have a nurse-led minor injuries unit, along with performing planned surgery, full diagnostic/outpatient services and general medicine. Eventually, Monklands was earmarked for downgrading. This would result in NHS Lanarkshire having two consultant-led accident and emergency departments at Wishaw General Hospital and Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride ^[13]

The decision was widely criticised, including the former Home Secretary, John Reid MP, voicing his disapproval of the plans ^[14]. In September 2006, the plan was approved by Lewis MacDonald, Deputy Health and Community Care minister ^{[15] [16]}. In May 2007, the Labour administration lost out to the Scottish National Party in the Scottish Parliament Elections 2007 and the decision was overturned by the new Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Nicola Sturgeon. She demanded that NHS Lanarkshire find a way of keeping three fully functioning consultant-led A+E departments in Lanarkshire ^[17]. NHS Lanarkshire have since developed seven possible combinations of keeping three A+E departments open, which have now been delivered for public scrutiny ^[18]

[edit] References