AIM
The City Council aims to support the provision of high quality public and private sector healthcare services in Glasgow.
6.77 A number of public and private sector primary healthcare facilities are present within the City. The NHS Greater Glasgow Board has undertaken an extensive review of acute and mental healthcare in the City with a view to rationalising its provision. The outcome of the review will lead to several changes in hospital provision within Glasgow involving closures (Western and Victoria Infirmaries), the transfer of existing services to other locations and the development of new healthcare facilities. Previous rationalisations resulted in surplus hospital land and buildings being redeveloped for alternative uses, for example at Leverndale. The private sector also have aspirations to improve the quality and range of services available in Glasgow.
6.78 The importance of both the public and private healthcare facilities in the City is recognised, as is the important relationship between some of these facilities and the tertiary education sector. Proposals to improve or extend the range of services or facilities offered by the healthcare sector in the City will generally be encouraged. It is also acknowledged that rationalisation of healthcare facilities may lead to opportunities for partial, or full, redevelopment of surplus land and buildings. The Council will require proposals for the expansion, or contraction, of healthcare facilities to be prepared within the context of the development framework for the area, in line with the terms of policy DEV 9: Civic, Hospital and Tertiary Education. Depending on circumstances, this would take the form of a campus plan or redevelopment masterplan that sets out in a statement and identifies on a map, either the broad development programmes over a period of approximately ten years and the longer term aspirations for the site or any proposed new land uses. Where partial or total closure is intended, redevelopment proposals should be prepared as part of a wider development framework. The redevelopment masterplan should show the proposed new uses in the context of the adjoining area, including any remaining campus use.
6.79 The Western Infirmary is located in the West End of the City at the northern edge of an area identified as having development potential (see River: Partick/Govan). The hospital occupies a site adjacent to residential tenements, public buildings, parkland, the University of Glasgow campus and Byres Road shopping centre. The redevelopment master plan for the site will require to address a range of planning issues including transport and access, townscape and design, density of development and listed buildings. The Victoria Infirmary is located on a hillside position in the South Side of the City surrounded by residential tenements, parkland and recreation grounds. Its redevelopment will also have to address a range of planning issues in a redevelopment masterplan.
6.80 The scoping for each campus plan or redevelopment masterplan should be discussed and agreed with the Council prior to its preparation. Typically, they should take account of uses for the site, transport and access, general layout, design, townscape and landscape considerations, density of development, listed buildings and phasing and timescale of development and, where appropriate, relationship with surrounding uses. Campus plans and redevelopment masterplans, once approved, will provide the context and guide for detailed development applications.
The City Council will require proposals for the redevelopment of healthcare facilities and sites to be assessed in the context of a campus development plan.
