Cost and value

April 19th, 2010

Oscar Wilde once said a cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Well there appears to be plenty of cynics in charge of the budgets at the health board.

I was stunned when I learned of the withdrawal of funding for the Ardgowan transport service, which ferry more than 1,000 cancer patients a year to their hospital appointments in Glasgow.

The army of volunteers do fantastic work, sparing people the indignity and discomfort of public transport or an ambulance, taking them back and forward for difficult treatment during a vulnerable time of their life.

Don’t take my word for it. In the words of one user, ‘the drivers are so full of good cheer they can be a source of real comfort when one is feeling really ill’.

Already a campaign is underway to have this decision reversed and the interests of patients and volunteers brought to the fore.

And I have called on the Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon to act on this.

Instead of reducing access to healthcare services, I have long argued we should be increasing it.

Worryingly, the cack-handed approach to this disgraceful cut bears resemblance to the treatment of our tea bar volunteers, who also faced the axe last year.

Whether it be the tea bar or our maternity services, we have shown before that as a community we will not take these unfair and unreasonable decisions lying down.

Whether it be the health board or the Scottish Government in Edinburgh, this community makes for formidable opposition when the services we rely on are put under threat.

And as a community, we are in no doubt of the value of our hard-working and selfless volunteers.