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Health Minister says use of Golden Jubilee is on the table
The campaign team met with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Alex Neil MSP, at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on Wednesday to push for access to more services at the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank, instead of patients travelling across the Erskine Bridge to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley.
The group insisted that the Health Minister needed to keep services local and asked him to ensure that all current services at the Vale of Leven Hospital would be maintained at the Alexandria site, following the health board’s Clinical Services Review.
The meeting follows positive talks between the campaign team and Robert Calderwood, Chief Executive of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde in March. Mr Neil confirmed that there would be no obstacle to the health board considering the use of the Golden Jubilee and the possibility of an A&E at Dalmuir as part of their on-going discussions.
At present eight working groups are currently reviewing services across the health boards remit and are due to present their findings in July. A public consultation will then be formally launched in September.
Since the hospital campaign launch, over 10,000 residents have signed petition postcards to support the fight to reinstate health services on this side of the River Clyde.
Gemma Doyle MP said:
“The current situation is not acceptable for residents in Dumbarton and the Vale, and with the closure of A&E at the Western, the remaining options for people in Clydebank will be far from ideal.
“We have a real chance here to get a lasting solution and it is now incumbent on both the Health Board and the Minister to take this proposal seriously.”
Jackie Baillie MSP commented: “I am pleased that Mr Neil came to the meeting prepared to listen to the views of local residents, but our fight is by no means over. There is still a lot of work to be done between now and the health board’s decision in September.
“It is reassuring that both the health board and the Cabinet Secretary appear to be supportive of a north of the river solution for the first time. It seems they are finally waking up to the fact that Paisley really is a bridge too far for patients on this side of the River Clyde. I intend to hold him to his commitments about the Golden Jubilee and the Vale of Leven hospitals. We will be monitoring the outcome of this review closely and I look forward to continuing our dialogue with Mr Neil over the coming months to ensure that we maintain services at the Vale of Leven hospital and continue to improve the facilities at our local hospital.”
Reverend Ian Miller, of Riverside Parish Church added: “A most interesting and productive meeting. The Cabinet Secretary did not dismiss any of our proposals as unrealistic. With reference to the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank, he gave us to believe that the 14 territorial health board boundaries should not be an obstacle to our acute care being delivered there.”