Published: Thursday, 28th January, 2010 10:25am

£1.37 million for the Vale

by Sharon Thompson

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The Vale Monitoring Group meeting

THE Vale of Leven Hospital is being given £1.37 million to complete almost a dozen capital projects, while the Royal Alexandra Hospital is benefiting from £1.6 million to upgrade just two wards.

The news was revealed at the first meeting open to the public of the Vale Monitoring Group, which was held at the Victoria Hall in Helensburgh on Monday (January 25).

The Vale is making a number of major changes including the creation of an audiology suite, relocating laboratories and redesigning a ward to become an outpatient department - on a shoestring budget compared to the money allocated for changes to two wards at the Paisley hospital.

Helen Byrne, director of acute services strategy implementation and planning at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, told those gathered about the projects under the Vale of Leven Vision Capital Programme and, at first, members of the meeting were unclear as to the financial details of the report.

Councillor Vivien Dance asked for exact figures and it was then revealed that the cost had been calculated at £1.37 million, yet upgrading wards 2 and 6 at the Royal Alexandra "to accommodate additional unscheduled care and rehabilitation activity" was costed at some £1.6 million.

Other projects to be carried out at the VoLH include changes to the renal area, relocation of offices and alterations to the day surgery suites.