Monklands has been around for more than 40 years, so it’s an ageing hospital and most of its mechanical and electrical infrastructure has exceeded its life expectancy and is no longer fit for purpose. This means we experience recurring failures that are not only costly to address, but also have a direct impact on the delivery of clinical services.

In addition, the current facilities lack space and the buildings don’t have the right layout to provide the ideal model of care, which requires particular departments and services to be located close together.

Put simply, the existing hospital no longer works for patients, visitors and staff and we need to do something about that.

In June 2019, Jeane Freeman, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, announced that staying on the current University Hospital Monklands site should no longer be an option for the project, explaining that “building a new hospital on an existing hospital site takes longer, costs more, risks infection and other patient safety issues, while creating performance and access issues during the long construction phase.”

They were – in alphabetical order – Gartcosh, Glenmavis and Wester Moffat.

Wester Moffat.

On 28 January 2021, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, Jeane Freeman, approved the recommendation by the Board of NHS Lanarkshire that Wester Moffat should be the home of the new Monklands.

The health board recognises that there are still a number of stages of the Monklands Replacement Project (MRP) that need to be completed before construction of the hospital can begin, the next being the outline business case.

Yes. At a full meeting of North Lanarkshire Council on 20 June 2024, the council granted planning permission for our new, state-of-the-art hospital, to be constructed at Wester Moffat in Airdrie.

We expect to submit the full business case in 2025. Work would commence on the site sometime thereafter subject to business case approval.

We estimate that it will be around 2031 before the new Monklands is completed but this is dependent on completion of the business case.

We have noted comments about access to Wester Moffat for residents in communities across Lanarkshire.

Along with other issues (including site contamination, cross-boundary flow of patients and the socio-economic impact of relocating the hospital), travel and transport emerged as the overriding theme from NHS Lanarkshire’s extensive engagement with the public and our staff. It was therefore given detailed consideration by the Board of NHS Lanarkshire prior to its approval of the Wester Moffat site recommendation.

The new East Airdrie Link Road, which will run between the M8 and Cumbernauld, will offer improved travel times to the Wester Moffat site, compared to the existing hospital, for the vast majority of communities in North and South Lanarkshire, including Cumbernauld and Kilsyth.

In addition, NHS Lanarkshire will continue to work closely with partners like North Lanarkshire Council, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport and Transport Scotland to ensure necessary improvements to public transport are part of the overall project. This commitment means that the frequency of bus services to the new hospital from communities across Lanarkshire will be as good as, or better than, current services to the existing hospital.

NHS Lanarkshire has undertaken a public consultation as part of the planning application process. This will help to inform the development of a hospital transport strategy, which will be required as part of the planning approval process.

Sufficient road and transport infrastructure to support the development of a major hospital site is one of the essential site selection criteria used to shortlist the three sites. Road and transport infrastructure will continue to be very much at the forefront of our considerations for the new Monklands.

Yes. We have a duty to ensure that bus services to  the new location would be at least as good as those to the current hospital site. Public transport infrastructure will be at the heart of any new development and we will work closely with partners like North Lanarkshire Council, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport and Transport Scotland to ensure necessary improvements to public transport are part of the overall project.

The new hospital is planned to have a large surface parking area and a multi-storey car park, providing around 2100 parking spaces in total – double the capacity at the existing University Hospital Monklands.

The site will have appropriate provision of accessible (blue badge) parking. This will predominantly be located at the car park near the main entrance, with additional spaces provided at the emergency department and across the site.

There will also be dedicated parking for some patient groups such as outpatient dialysis and cancer care and further spaces at the proposed nursery.

Any proposals for dedicated staff parking will be decided later in the project through development of a Parking Management Strategy. Suitable provision of electric vehicle charging points will also be determined at a later stage in consultation with the local authority.

The provision of green spaces was a key feature of the project’s Initial Agreement with the Scottish Government that allowed us to start planning a new hospital.

The Scottish Government requires us to give specific consideration to providing a “pleasant” environment. The plans offer safe, usable and attractive external areas that are designed to enhance the existing woodland setting. These must be easily accessible and should contribute to the wellbeing of patients, staff and visitors.

The national Sustainable Transport Policy encourages developments to prioritise “active travel” (walking, wheeling, cycling) and public transport for everyday journeys, reducing car use. The project has attempted to strike a balance, acknowledging the need for car use and associated parking, but also focusing on public transport and opportunities for active travel methods.

The East Airdrie Link Road (EALR) is the name given to the section of the Pan Lanarkshire orbital transport corridor that will run from the M8 towards Cumbernauld. It will improve travel times to the Wester Moffat site, compared to the existing site, through a new single carriageway road link from north of the M8 (A723/Newhouse Interchange) to the A73, north of Stand.

Funding has been secured by North Lanarkshire Council to construct the EALR and the road is planned to be completed by 2026. See the latest information on the EALR, on North Lanarkshire Council’s website.

Yes. Any relocation of a staff base is carried out under NHS Lanarkshire’s organisational change policy, which ensures that colleagues who have additional travel costs to a new location are reimbursed these costs for a period of four years. There will also be new public transport links to the new site. If there was sufficient demand, we would also consider the possibility of running a shuttle bus for staff who currently walk to work, from the vicinity of the current site to the new location.

The new hospital is a replacement for the existing University Hospital Monklands and services will mirror those in the current hospital – including an A&E department.

In addition, the hospital will be home to planned (elective) orthopaedic surgery in Lanarkshire, following a public engagement process on future provision of this service –

https://www.nhslanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk/get-involved/consult-engage/elective-orthopaedics/

Departments/services

• A&E
• Cancer Centre
• Cardiology/Medicine
• Care of the Elderly
• Catering
• Clinical Research
• Critical Care
• Ears, nose and throat (ENT) general
• Endoscopy
• Facilities Management
• Frailty
• Gastroenterology/Medicine
• General Surgery
• Haematology
• Infectious Diseases
• Labs
• Medical
• Medicine
• Mortuary
• Offices
• Operational Command Centre
• Orthopaedic
• Outpatient Dialysis
• Outpatients
• Planned Investigation Unit
• Radiology
• Radiotherapy (Lanarkshire Beatson)
• Renal/Medicine
• Research and Education
• Respiratory
• Spiritual care
• Staff Accommodation
• Surgical
• Theatres
• Urology/Medicine

You may be treated at the new hospital even if you don’t live in the area of North Lanarkshire that makes up its catchment area (which is for patients needing unscheduled care). Just like the current hospital, the new University Hospital Monklands will treat patients from across North and South Lanarkshire in its specialist services, known as “centres of excellence”.

These will be:

• Cancer care
• Ear, nose & throat surgery
• Histopathology (the study of changes in tissues caused by disease)
• Infectious disease medicine
• Lanarkshire Beatson radiotherapy centre
• Renal (kidney) medicine
• Urology surgery

The hospital will also be home to elective (planned) orthopaedic surgery in Lanarkshire.

The new hospital will be the first in Scotland to be designed from the outset to be net zero for both the build and operation phases, meaning it will not contribute to carbon emissions.

The Climate Change Act 2019 commits Scotland to net zero emissions of all greenhouse gases by 2045. The expectation of NHS Lanarkshire is that the new University Hospital Monklands should be an exemplar healthcare building and we are aiming to comply with the Net Zero Carbon Public Sector Buildings (NZCPSB) standard.

This design process requires an all-round, innovative approach to the delivery of a highly sustainable, low-carbon “next generation” hospital with a people-focused approach to health, wellbeing and amenity. The design of the hospital will reflect the expectation towards agile/flexible working, wellness, sustainability and embedded smart building technology. In addition, any design solution will include the ability to integrate future technologies that may not currently be available but would enhance the sustainable aspirations of the facility if utilised at a future date.

The wider project goal regarding net zero will aim to:
• Reduce energy demand;
• Increase energy efficiency;
• Include renewables.

Scottish Government legislation published in 2018 requires public organisations to take account of socio-economic impact when planning a new development. This is known as a Fairer Scotland Duty (FSD) Assessment. NHS Lanarkshire has completed a FSD assessment in accordance with this legislation and this is published in our site selection engagement archive.

We intend to create a health and wellbeing village on the current site of University Hospital Monklands after the hospital moves. This means the local community will benefit from enhanced community-based healthcare in addition to the development of a new University Hospital Monklands, helping to reduce health inequalities and providing the opportunity for economic regeneration in the area.

Discussions on this will be progressed with North Lanarkshire Council, the University of Strathclyde and other community planning partners.

We’ll look for opportunities to repurpose the modern buildings on the existing site that are currently home to the Lanarkshire Beatson and Maggie’s Lanarkshire, but this will be dependent on the final plans for the development of the site.

Yes. The Lanarkshire Beatson radiotherapy centre will be within the new hospital building, right next to the cancer unit. It is an operational requirement for the Beatson to be located on an acute hospital site. The Maggie’s Lanarkshire cancer support centre will be on the new hospital’s campus and is planned to be within easy walking distance of the cancer unit.

The MRP Engagement Report includes the key themes identified from the extensive public and staff feedback on the site options:

1. The engagement process and site scoring exercise;
2. Identification of potential sites;
3. Travel and transport;
4. Impact on health inequalities and deprivation;
5. Site contamination;
6. Cross-boundary flow of patients.

The Board of NHS Lanarkshire met on 16 December 2020 and unanimously approved the recommendation of Wester Moffat as the preferred site option for the new University Hospital Monklands.

The Board’s recommendation was then considered by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, who gave approval in January 2021.

A total of 53 sites were put forward as potential locations for a new Monklands, all identified either by NHS Lanarkshire’s property consultants, North Lanarkshire Council or put forward by members of the public.

Having analysed and assessed each of the suggested sites against the five site selection criteria, we were left with the three viable options of Gartcosh, Glenmavis and Wester Moffat.

Read about the site shortlisting process, including the site nominations we received from the public.

The Board members gave thorough consideration to an extensive suite of documents. These are available in the Board papers section of the NHS Lanarkshire website.

Locating the hospital in Cumbernauld would have an adverse impact on the unscheduled care catchment areas of University Hospital Wishaw and Forth Valley Royal Hospital. The effective expansion of their catchment areas would increase demand and potentially impact on their performance and ability to deliver patient services.

The information we have published on the site shortlisting process includes a list of all the sites that were considered, including in Cumbernauld, and an assessment of the impact on A&E attendances and bed numbers of a new hospital in a number of locations, including Cumbernauld.

The five site selection criteria are:

• The site must sit within the University Hospital Monklands unscheduled care catchment area.
• The site must be a minimum of 40 developable acres.
• The site must have no detrimental impact on adjoining unscheduled catchment areas of hospitals in Lanarkshire, Glasgow or Forth valley.
• The site must be designated to permit appropriate development.
• The site must have sufficient road and transport infrastructure to support the development of a major hospital site.

We asked for views from patients, staff and other stakeholders, who all have a voice in this important decision. We received independent advice from the Consultation Institute to help us develop our plan for engagement.

An intensive period of public engagement was held in February and March 2020, following the publication of suite of detailed information on the three shortlisted sites. Members of the public, staff and other stakeholders had the opportunity to review this information and could:

• take part in community discussions
• take part in a People’s Hearing
• suggest the criteria to be used to assess the sites in a scoring process
• nominate themselves to take part in the site scoring process, which took place in July and August 2020 as a postal exercise.

See our site selection engagement archive for full details of the engagement process, the site scoring exercise and the site information that has been published.

During the two-stage exercise, which was independently designed and managed by the Consultation Institute (tCI), participants were invited to “weight” (assess the relative importance) of five non-financial benefits criteria, then score each site against the criteria. The benefits criteria, developed with input from the public, were:

• Travel times by road and public transport – patients;
• Travel times by road and public transport – staff;
• Access/connectivity to NHS regional centres;
• Contamination (each of the possible sites requires a degree of work to remove contamination left over from its previous use)
• Impact of cross-boundary flow (i.e. patients from Glasgow attending the hospital)

The site feasibility option appraisal incorporated the postal scoring exercise undertaken by a group of members of the public and NHS Lanarkshire staff in July and August 2020.

Through an economic assessment and a risk assessment, the option appraisal produced a score for each site:

• Gartcosh – 194.12
• Glenmavis – 156.84
• Wester Moffat – 195.74

For more information, read our handy summary of the option appraisal process on in our site selection engagement archive.

Yes. A public feedback period took place from 30 September 2020 until midnight on 18 October 2020.

The feedback received was considered by the Board of NHS Lanarkshire alongside a range of other factors, including all the information we gathered during our public engagement work.

The Board met on 16 December 2020 and unanimously approved the recommendation of Wester Moffat as the preferred site option for the new University Hospital Monklands.

The Board’s recommendation was then considered and approved by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport.

We are working towards completion of the Full Business Case in 2025.