Parents of pupils at the “blue water campus” claim NHS doctors are blocking their children from having private blood tests to monitor potentially dangerous levels of poisons.
The NHS has refused to test children on the Buchanan High and St Ambrose High School campus in Coatbridge, where a 13-year-old – who has gone blind – was found to have almost three times the safe levels of
Four teachers – either former or current – at Buchanan have been treated for the same rare form of bladder cancer.
Children at the schools, which were built on a landfill site, were told several months ago they shouldn’t drink the blue-tinged water.
Some were willing to pay for private testing but the procedure needs a referral from their GP and so far, doctors have refused to sign the letters.
One dad said: “We went to the doctor’s a wee while ago but were told there was no clinical justification for testing.
“We asked Ross Hall and Nuffield (private hospitals in Glasgow) to do the tests but they won’t do them without a referral.”
The man claimed “every river nearby was completely devoid of life” and called for testing at the site.
The Government has set up an independent review to help “address concerns”.
North Lanarkshire Council has repeatedly denied any link between the school site and cancer.
A spokesman for Ross Hall Hospital said: “We are not licensed to provide invasive procedures in outpatient settings to people aged under 16, and would need a referral from a GP for these blood tests for people aged over 16.”
