When the new, massive, Forth Valley Royal Hospital was built around two miles out Falkirk town centre, there were endless complaints about access but in the end safety came first and the built it more than 3 miles and upwind of the nearest raw sewage treatment works near Grangemouth.
If you were to put the hospital at the centre of the population for maximum access you’d put it on the empty land between Falkirk and Grangemouth, near where the Falkirk Stadium is and due-west, downwind of the Dalderse sewage works.
They didn’t. There’s no report of the planning groups deliberately avoiding sewage works. Maybe if your head is screwed on and you owe business interests nothing, it just doesn’t occur to anyone to do build a hospital next to ponds full of sh…
Does this reveal very different priorities to those held by Glasgow City council in siting the QEUH
Yes, the contrast does point to meaningfully different priorities in site selection between the Forth Valley process and the decisions that led to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) on the former Southern General Hospital site in Glasgow.
Should patient and staff safety not trump all other considerations?
Patient and staff safety is widely regarded as a foundational priority in healthcare planning.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK225188/
That’s what the experts said in 2008 but they were ignored:
I recall my first visit to the hospital and discovering that it had been built next to a sewage treatment facility. I was astonished by this, and it was the first point I raised when I met Ian Powrie, my main contact at QEUH. I asked why it had been allowed given that the hospital contained some very immunocompromised patients, and I was particularly concerned about potential transmission of microorganisms from the sewage treatment facility, as airborne transmission of microorganisms from sewage treatment works had been well documented.
https://www.hospitalsinquiry.scot/inquiry-document/witness-statement-tom-makin-270824
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that map is completely wrong – where did you source it?
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Apologies
Thanks
We’re running at 1.5FTE staffing and I missed that.
Removed
John
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Too many unionist Health Boards do not have a clue to what they are doing. Deliberately taxing everyone’s health, never mind the economy in turmoil.
Health before wealth. To keep people healthy and happy. More prosperous.
Independence will bring the help that is needed.
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I suspect that the original hospital builders did site them in healthy residential or rural areas so that fresh air and sunlight are available. The Aberdeen Royal Infirmary was previously called Foresterhill Hospital because it was built on a hill far from industrial activity.
The other big hospital is called Woodend Hospital for the obvious reason that it was built on the outskirts of town near woodland.
QEUH should be closed and another safer hospital built.
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YET AGAIN ANOTHER SLAP ON SCOTLAND
WHEN THE REAL FAILURES ARE ALL FAULT OF WESTMINSTER
FUDGING DELAYS
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