20th April, 2015
Future for the IRH?
Inverclyde Royal Hospital is over 35 years old. Therefore, one would expect that the building would be experiencing some wear and tear.
But I’m sure many of you would be surprised to learn that IRH requires a £44 million repair bill to bring it up to an acceptable condition. This would appear to be the highest repair bill of any hospital in the entire country.
Interestingly, the bill has more than doubled in value since the Greenock Telegraphfirst reported on the hospital’s deteriorating condition over three years ago.
The revelation came to light recently when the Scottish Government published an analysis of the performance of the whole NHS estate.
Understandably, the local community will be left wondering why we have got to a stage where the hospital has fallen into such a state of disrepair.
It will also raise questions in peoples’ minds about the long term sustainability of the building and the impact this will have on staff and patients.
The news comes on top of the failing conditions of our local health centres’ and the unacceptable delay in the replacement of Ravenscraig Hospital.
Given the huge health challenges we face locally, including a rising elderly population, the citizens of Inverclyde deserve the best health facilities available and the funding that would make this possible from NHSGreaterGlasgow and Clyde and the Scottish Government.
And while I acknowledge the recent upgrade to IRH’s Accident and Emergency Department, it would seem we have a long way to go tobring the whole building up to scratch.
I will be writing to both the Health Board and the Scottish Government to seek assurances that they are doing all they can to ensure there is a long-term future for the building and to arrange a meeting to discuss their immediate plans to address the backlog.