Edinburgh's Lauriston Building one of 8 NHS Lothian sites at risk of closure over use of cheap concrete scotsman.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from scotsman.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Scots tot who lost eye to rare cancer after being 'fobbed off by clinic' given all-clear dailyrecord.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailyrecord.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Submitting.
The new Sick Kids hospital at Little France had running costs of over £7m in 2020/21
The previous year the new building had running costs of £3.5m even though the building was standing empty.
The figures were obtained under Freedom of Information legislation by Lothian Tory MSP Miles Briggs, who said it was a waste of taxpayers’ money having to run two hospitals at the same time.
He said: “These are huge chunks of money which the health board has been forced to spend on running two hospitals because of the delay with the new building.
“People understand that – patients need to have that reliable health service available – but this is a situation which should have been avoided.”
“I think he should come and visit the current site to really see the need for the Eye Pavilion to be replaced as soon as possible.”
Plans for a replacement eye hospital next to the Royal Infirmary at Little France were agreed in principle in 2018, but the government told NHS Lothian in December 2020 it would not fund the project, prompting a public outcry and cross-party calls for a rethink.
During the election campaign, Nicola Sturgeon said the SNP would after all fund a replacement – and she repeated the pledge when she set out the government’s priorities in the Scottish Parliament.