The NHS in Lothian

Lothian Health (1994-2001)

In 1994, the organisation changed its name to Lothian Health although the board retained its name as ‘Lothian Health Board’. Many announcements were made relating to the closure of hospitals and the re-provisioning of others from the mid to late 1990s. Hospitals to close included the City Hospital, Eastern General Hospital, Chalmers Hospital, Gogarburn Hospital, St Joseph’s Hospital and the Princess Margaret Rose Hospital. New capital projects were announced such as the building of a new Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh at Little France, and to add to St John’s and the Western General Hospital: this would result in three modern acute hospitals to serve the Lothian region.

In December 1997, a white paper entitled ‘Designed to Care’ was published. It recommended a greater patient perspective in healthcare and a reduction in the number of trusts in Lothian from six to three. This recommendation was accepted by Lothian Health who initially suggested that the three trusts should be:

Trust	Hospitals and Services Controlled
Acute Hospitals Trust	Royal Edinburgh Hospital for Sick Children
	Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh
	Western General Hospital
Primary Care Trust (Edinburgh, East Lothian and Midlothian)	Family Doctor Services
	Community Health Services
	Mental Health Services
	All hospitals except the three in the Acute Hospitals Trust
Primary Care led Integrated Trust in West Lothian	All services in West Lothian

These three suggested trusts were rejected in April 2000 in favour of the following:

[Where text appears in blue, this is a link to a collection of records held by LHSA.]

Trust	Trusts and Services Incorporated
Lothian Primary Care Trust	Edinburgh Healthcare NHS Trust
	East and Midlothian NHS Trust
Lothian University Hospitals NHS Trust	Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh NHS Trust
	Western General Hospitals NHS Trust
	Edinburgh Sick Children’s Trust
West Lothian Healthcare Trust	Acute and primary care services in West Lothian
	Treatment not restricted to those living in West Lothian

In 2000, the board of Lothian Health recommended that it should focus to a greater extent on its wider public health role and allow NHS Trusts to take control of the NHS healthcare agenda. Trust chairmen were elected to the board of Lothian Health. In December 2000 the Scottish Health Plan was launched to bring together the NHS and signal new partnerships with local authorities and other organisations.

Back