Soaring costs could see Sick Kids go to Glasgow

THE soaring cost of building the new Sick Kids hospital could lead to its services being moved to Glasgow, it has emerged.

Unison, which represents thousands of health workers in the Lothians, said the health board would simply not be able to afford the hefty repayments for both that and the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

The Evening News revealed yesterday the 250 million new Sick Kids at Little France could end up costing NHS Lothian 900m, with repayments set at around 30m a year.

With the annual rent of the ERI approaching 60m annually, those two outgoings alone would remove nearly ten per cent of the organisation's annual budget.

Privately, some leading clinicians admit there are sound financial and medical arguments for having only one paediatric hospital for the Central Belt.

With Glasgow's Sick Kids replacement well on its way - paid for with public money - there would be one obvious candidate.

Today both the Scottish Government and NHS Lothian reaffirmed their commitment to the long-awaited project, which has already been delayed from its original 2013 opening.

Bosses are preparing to submit rough plans to the council, having already done so several months ago before the brakes were applied to the scheme.

Tom Waterson, Lothian branch chairman for Unison, said: "Our fear is that, with all this extra cost involved, a decision will be made to have one hospital for the Central Belt, and that would be in Glasgow.

"If you think costs for this could be up to 30m a year while they still pay 56m a year for the Royal Infirmary, that is a huge chunk out of the budget.

"There will come a point when it just cannot be afforded.

"The debate has to happen - but no-one would ever admit to this with it being so politically sensitive."

When NHS Lothian secured permission from Holyrood to press ahead with the new building, it was to be done so with public money.

Then in February, ministers U-turned, instead telling stunned health chiefs in Edinburgh that they had to find private cash under the non-profit distribution model (NPD) through the Scottish Futures Trust.While that limits the profits private firms can make from the deal, experts said the high interest paid on bank loans would mean the resulting cost over time would be the same, if not higher.

Not going ahead with the project would be a major blow to NHS Lothian's ambitions, but might make sense to those controlling the country's purse strings, as having two world-class children's hospitals within 50 miles of each other is a luxury compared with most countries, and even the rest of the UK.

Susan Goldsmith, finance director for NHS Lothian, said: "The Scottish Government has confirmed their commitment to our plans for a new hospital for children and young people and Department of Clinical Neurosciences at Little France.

"We have been working closely with government and the Scottish Futures Trust to progress this important project and anticipate making an application for planning permission in principle in the next month."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "The Sick Kids Hospital project is going ahead.

"The Scottish Futures Trust are leading on distributing 2.5 billion of new investment to support this project and others.

"NHS Lothian is already working closely with the Trust to deliver the new Sick Kids Hospital."