Health / Replacement hospital a ‘generational investment’ so board has to ‘get it right’
NHS Shetland chief executive Michael Dickson says the health board has “got to get it right” when designing a replacement hospital.
He said it would be a “generational investment about how we take our health and care services moving forward”.
It comes after Shetland MSP Beatrice Wishart sought an update from the Scottish Government on the project.
But health secretary Humza Yousaf was unable to give any firm details.
The case for a replacement Gilbert Bain Hospital is currently being worked on by NHS Shetland.
Speaking in a Facebook livestream on Wednesday evening Dickson said the board is in the midst of a process that all NHS boards have to go through.
He said the project is being described as a “health and care campus” – not just a hospital.
Dickson explained the NHS has to outline the reasons why it is needed, and once that is justified the next stage would be scoping out agreements and exploring how it would operate.
He said it would then go into a business case, which gets submitted to the Scottish Government.
“We’re a long way away from it,” Dickson said.
“Of course we can’t get away from the fact that finances are particularly under pressure, because of everything that is going on right now.”
He stressed the health board is not looking for a like for like replacement.
“This is about a generational investment about how we take our health and care services moving forward,” Dickson said, “so we’ve got to get it right.”
He explained that care today looks a lot different to how it used to decades ago.
The Gilbert Bain Hospital in Lerwick has been operating in its current form since the 1960s but there is little opportunity to keep up with modern standards.
“The world has changed and it’s important that when we think about health and care moving forward, we think about what that future looks like,” Dickson said, adding that even in the last few years technology has evolved.
The health chief said expectations should be tempered around a replacement Gilbert Bain – but he reiterated that no-one is saying the current hospital is fit for purpose.
Standards and expectation of care have changed, and “we’ve got to reflect that in terms of making sure what we build for the future generations, that those generations will turn around and thank us for what we’ve built”.
Speaking after raising the issue in parliament Wishart said: “Shetland needs a new hospital that is able to meet the needs of modern, 21st century care provision.
“I am pleased that the cabinet secretary agrees with me that a replacement of our current hospital is needed.
“It is disappointing that no date could be conveyed to me today and I await correspondence from the cabinet secretary with more information.”
Yousaf visited Shetland earlier this year and said he was keen to see a “state of the art” replacement Gilbert Bain.
He said the Scottish Government will work constructively with NHS Shetland on the business case for a new hospital.
Health secretary keen to see a ‘state of the art’ replacement hospital
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