Edinburgh’s Eye Pavilion is a 1960s museum piece that’s falling apart at the seams

Edinburgh's Eye Pavilion was new when films like Carry On Doctor were all the rage (Picture: Film Publicity Archive/United Archives) | Getty Images

There are some places in life you just don’t want to end up. The dock at Edinburgh Sheriff Court is one, the returns queue at Marks and Spencer on Boxing Day is another and to that list we can also add the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion in Edinburgh.

Most of us will sail through life without crossing the threshold but you never know what is around the corner. Earlier this year, I ended up rushing my wife through the doors when she experienced a torn retina. It was to say the least, an eye-opening experience.

People always preface any NHS story by saying the staff were fantastic and that’s because they are. The care could not have been more professional or compassionate, which is remarkable in itself because these people are working in surroundings not fit for purpose.

No Hattie Jacques?

Sitting in a corridor waiting to be seen, I expected James Robertson Justice to walk around the corner as the pompous consultant with Hattie Jacques hard on his heels being a strict, no-nonsense matron. If you’ve watched any 1970s hospital dramas, you’ll feel right at home in the Eye Pavilion. From the furnishings to the fading colour scheme, it’s literally a museum piece.

Opened in 1969 as a centre of excellence for eye care, the technology has changed radically but the building is way past its sell-by date. That was agreed back in 2015 when it was deemed ‘not-fit-for-purpose’ but the last ten years have seen a succession of replacement plans being agreed, then shelved or delayed due to costs.

It’s currently closed for six months while contractors replace waste pipes and remove asbestos, leaving patients in limbo and sent for treatment at other NHS sites. That wouldn’t have happened if the replacement for the Eye Pavilion had gone ahead as planned in 2018.

Budget brought good news

The good news this week is that a new eye hospital will finally go ahead after dedicated funding was announced as part of the Scottish Budget. The announcement has been widely welcomed by regular patients and medical professionals.

Our eyes are something we take for granted and it’s only when things go wrong that we realise the remarkable role they play in our lives and how much we depend on them. It was only by witnessing what my wife experienced that I came to understand the urgent case for a new state-of-the-art facility in Edinburgh.

How money is spent within the NHS is open to debate but the need for up-to-date premises is not. Four years after the Eye Pavilion opened, the St James Centre in Edinburgh started trading as the future of city centre shopping. It operated for 40 years but then became obsolete and was torn down and replaced with the billion-pound monument to shopping that is the St James Quarter. We can do that but meanwhile we are leaving emergency eye care in our capital city to a building that is literally falling apart at the seams.

The replacement for the Eye Pavilion is welcome and can’t come quickly enough but in this day and age we should never again get to a situation where facilities are being closed for urgent repairs when they should have been replaced long ago. Surely that is something we can all see.