§ Mr. KynochTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will announce his decision on the proposed merger of the Royal Scottish national hospital and community NHS trust and the Forth Valley health care unit; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. LangThe public consultation on the proposed merger of the Royal Scottish national hospital and 21W community NHS trust and the Forth Valley health care unit to form the Central Scotland Healthcare NHS trust was carried out by Forth Valley health board and a report was submitted to me in April. The report indicated broad support for the proposals.
As with all trust applications, the merger proposal has been considered against the published criteria of benefits for patients, management competence, the involvement of clinicians and other health care professionals in management and financial viability.
The proposed trust arrangements meet these criteria and consequently I have decided to give my approval to the merger proposal. The new trust will come into operation on 1 October 1994.
1989–90 £ 1990–91 £ 1991–92 £ 1992–93 £ 11993–94 £ Machair of the Uists 124,754 159,897 189,925 222,420 215,127 Breadalbane 202,437 233,698 270,699 219,707 154,109 Loch Lomond 43,180 71,706 100,437 77,805 76,751 1Provisional. Individual ESAs are not given an allocated budget. Expenditure is contained within the overall ESA scheme provision.