SNP halt plans for new £2.1bn Monklands Hospital over financial woes
Health Secretary Angela Constance said the current plans would be more expensive than building both the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and HMP Glasgow.
Plans to replace Monklands Hospital have been halted because the Scottish government has said it can no longer afford the £2.1 billion price tag.
Health Secretary Angela Constance said the plans currently on the table “would not deliver value for money for the public purse” and a new, cheaper plan will be put forward next year.
This puts the planned opening date of 2031 into doubt.
Opposition parties say patients in Lanarkshire are now “paying a heavy price for the nationalists’ incompetence”, with the Scottish Conservatives accusing the SNP of giving former health secretary Neil Gray “preferential treatment before the election”.
Ms Constance said: “I recognise this will be disappointing for staff and communities who have been engaging patiently for a number of years in the development of plans.
“However, having carefully considered the affordability of the full business case submitted by NHS Lanarkshire, I cannot approve it in its current form within our current financial landscape.
“The current proposal for Monklands is significantly more expensive than comparable programmes and would represent an unprecedented concentration of capital investment in a single health project.
“For context, that would be an estimated £5 million per bed to deliver.”
Ms Constance said the current plans would be more expensive than building the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and the new HMP Glasgow.
While she assured MSPs core services such as A&E will be retained at Monklands Hospital in the meantime, she added: “This is not a decision I have taken lightly - we are fully committed to building a new hospital at Monklands.
“However, it is also my responsibility to ensure that major investment decisions are affordable, deliverable, and aligned with the future direction of our health and care system.”
This decision comes despite the SNP’s 2026 manifesto stating: “Work is already well underway on major capital projects including replacements for University Hospital Monklands.”
Miles Briggs MSP, the Scottish Conservatives’ health spokesman, said: “The SNP are incapable of delivering any infrastructure project on time or on budget - and that includes a hospital in the former health secretary’s own constituency.
“It appeared that Neil Gray was given preferential treatment before the election because despite broader delays and pausing of new NHS construction projects across Scotland, the Monklands replacement project retained priority funding, and now the SNP appear to be backtracking.”
Both he and Scottish Labour are now demanding First Minister John Swinney intervene and set out a concrete date and price tag on replacing the hospital.
Dame Jackie Baillie MSP, Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman, said: “The people of Lanarkshire and the hardworking NHS staff will be bitterly disappointed with this announcement.
“This is not a reset - it’s a complete halt.
“It has taken the SNP just seven weeks to start ditching manifesto promises.
“At best, the SNP was economical with the truth and made promises they had no budget to deliver.
“The SNP needs to start being honest with the public and set out clear timescales for delivering this badly needed hospital.”
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