§ 25. Mr. IngramTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what plans he has to improve the provision of general hospital services within the Lanarkshire health board area.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythOn Friday, 7 June my right hon. Friend endorsed Lanarkshire health board's proposal in its acute services strategy to build a new 615-bed district general hospital in Wishaw at a cost of over £70 million to serve the Motherwell and Clydesdale area. The other component of the board's acute services strategy is to226W provide a new district general hospital to serve the Hamilton and East Kilbride districts by either redeveloping the existing Hairmyres hospital site or by building a new district general hospital at Blantyre.
I visited Lanarkshire on Monday 17 June to see for myself the sites involved and to hear at first hand the various arguments in favour of each of the options. I shall make a further announcement as soon as possible.