THE BATTLE to save Stracathro Hospital is to be used as an example of how strength of public feeling can be garnered for the benefit of the local community in a televised event next week to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the National Health Service.

Flying in the face of Tayside health policy at the time, which favoured centralisation of services, Margaret Smith was a lead campaigner in the protracted battle eight years ago to keep open the north Angus hospital. She has since been instrumental in shaping an integrated health service in Angus.

The former medical researcher has now been invited to star along with a host of top names in the health service in an anniversary programme entitled This Is Your Life: Celebrate 60 years of the NHS to be filmed by the BBC in the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow on Tuesday.

She said, “It is quite an honour for Angus that the battle to save Stracathro should be highlighted. I have been invited along to represent the public side of the health service, to answer questions on Stracathro and show how ordinary people can negotiate with health boards. I am delighted the hospital is to be given national prominence.”

Despite uncertainty hanging over the future of the privately operated regional treatment centre at Stracathro, the hospital, which now serves patients from throughout Scotland, now plays a pivotal role in the delivery of health care which seems secure for the foreseeable future.

A major impact on the site will be a £20 million mental health unit to replace the Sunnyside Royal Hospital at Hillside near Montrose which has been the site of the Angus psychiatric hospital for nearly 150 years.

The new unit will provide 25 general adult psychiatry in-patient beds, 27 psychiatry of old age in-patient beds, an eight-place day hospital and a range of associated facilities such as pharmacy and occupational therapy.

It is expected that 120 staff will be employed at the unit, many of whom will transfer from Sunnyside.

Recently-unveiled plans to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant at the hospital, are further evidence of the multi-million-pound expansion of facilities. The current sewage plant was built during the second world war and has passed its useful life.

Something that gave Mrs Smith a particular sense of triumph was the resumption of major orthopaedic surgery at Stracathro during the daytime for NHS patients.

She remains committed to ensuring ongoing public support for the hospital as a committee member of Friends of Stracathro, a group which has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds since the victory against closure to purchase state-of-the-art equipment not otherwise available from NHS resources.