NHS homing in on more localised care

THOUSANDS of patients across the Lothians could receive treatment closer to home under plans to move some procedures away from Edinburgh's two main hospitals.

The switch would involve more minor treatments and testing being carried out in smaller hospitals and clinics, making life easier for patients, particularly those who have difficulty travelling sometimes long distances to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary or Western General.

Work is already under way to investigate what could be moved out of both Little France and the Western to St John's Hospital in Livingston for West Lothian patients.

If that is a success, similar benefits will be examined for those in East and Midlothian.

NHS Lothian chairman Dr Charles Winstanley said: "I've had meetings to see what services presently provided at the Royal Infirmary and the Western, that were diagnostic and minor procedures, could be done more locally."This is an opportunity to move services more locally to St John's for people in West Lothian.

"If that means we can reduce the amount of travelling patients have to do then that can only be a good thing."

One issue that will accelerate this bid is the construction of a short-stay surgical centre at the Livingston hospital.

That is due for completion in December and will allow procedures that previously involved an overnight stay to be done in the course of a day.

Not only is this likely to be popular with patients but it will save significant amounts of money for NHS Lothian too.

It also might explain why health chiefs were happy to ditch their "re-zoning" project, which would have seen residents across the west of Edinburgh referred to St John's rather than a city hospital.

Senior NHS bosses will watch closely to see how easily the initiative can be expanded through the Lothians, with the main problem being the schedules of surgeons and consultants if they are spread more thinly across sites.

Although on the face of it the move seems like good news, a campaign group St John's said this was not necessarily the case, explaining that the complexity of work had been downgraded over the years.

"A lot of the surgical side of things have been taken away from St John's. It is a huge issue," said Councillor Ellen Glass, a member of the Action to Save St John's party.

"That situation has been forced on St John's."

But Cllr Peter Johnston, leader of West Lothian Council, said those at the meeting between representatives of health in the area were buoyed by the outcome.

"It was a very helpful meeting and everyone left feeling very encouraged that this would be a genuine opportunity to see a range of treatments provided at St John's," he said.