Professor Allyson Pollock believes Monklands A&E should stay open

Professor Allyson Pollock told Frontline Scotland, which was screened on Wednesday, the decision was a public health catastrophe.

Professor Pollock, of the University of Edinburgh, said: "I do think this decision should be reversed."

NHS Lanarkshire said upgrading the hospital would have been too expensive.

But Professor Pollock, of the centre for international public health policy, said: "It's very bad news for the public health and it's very bad news for the people of Lanarkshire."

Community casualty units

NHS Lanarkshire decided to downgrade the casualty unit to a minor injuries unit.

Monklands will house one of five community casualty units.

I think this really is a red herring and it's very misleading Tim Davison Chief executive NHS Lanarkshire

Frontline Scotland has seen the conclusions of a report soon to be published by Professor Pollock.

She said Monklands was downgraded because of the huge cost of the other two hospitals in Lanarkshire, Hairmyres and Wishaw.

These were built using Private Finance Initiatives (PFI).

Professor Pollock added: "Wishaw and Hairmyres both have 30 years PFI contracts.

"So if you were to make a significant change or service closure then the PFI consortium would have to be compensated so therefore Monklands would have to be sacrificed because it is not protected by a PFI contract."

NHS Lanarkshire strongly denied that PFI played any part in its decision and maintained that upgrading an older hospital like Monklands would have been too expensive.

Tim Davison, chief executive, said: "I think this really is a red herring and it's very misleading.

"Monklands was going to be significantly more expensive in capital terms.

"It was going to take years longer to develop because it required major upgrading as well as physical extension."