Report to the People
28th July
2003
24
Hours to See Sense
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of
tomorrow’s Health Board meeting. When the members come
to decide on whether to accept the Maternity Services Steering
Group’s recommendation to centralise all of Argyll and
Clyde’s inpatient consultant-led maternity services in
Paisley, they will be deciding a lot more than where a few
hundred babies are born.
Rather,
as the documents uncovered last week reveal, they are in effect
ruling on the future of health services for 800,000 women and
children in the West of Scotland.
Today
we stand at a crossroads. If the Board members reject this
fundamentally misguided scheme, then they clear the way for a
proper, thorough investigation of the underlying issues which are
hampering service delivery in the NHS and driving forward reviews
such as this. If, on the other hand, they endorse it, they
will start down the one way street to wholesale centralisation of
our NHS.
Of
course what road we take is now in the hands of the Health Board
members. So, over the past week, I have been spelling our
case out to every single one of them.
While
there are, I tell them, many emotional arguments in favour of
retaining the Rankin’s consultant-led status (as, indeed,
there would be with any maternity unit), an examination of the
cold, hard evidence alone should be enough to convince anyone
that the unit’s case is cast iron.
For a
start, not only will the Steering Group’s plans open the
door to consultant-led inpatient services for 800,000 women and
children being concentrated in 2 hospitals – Paisley’s
RAH and Glasgow’s Southern General – which are 7 miles
apart, this impact was not considered during the consultation
process.
And
it’s not as if this plan offers a long-term solution. How
long do you think services transferred to Paisley are going to
remain there while there’s a university-led maternity unit a
few minutes up the motorway?
I
appreciate that Board members will be under intense pressure from
powerful vested interests to endorse this proposal. But I
am asking them, before they cast their vote tomorrow, to consider
nothing but the evidence and to act in the best interests of the
community they serve.
And
you can play your part. Now is the time to flood the Health
Board with calls (0141 842 7276) and emails
(public@achb.scot.nhs.uk), urging them to look at the facts and
see sense.
For
the sake, not just of the Rankin, but the future shape of our
NHS, I ask you to make that call or click that mouse. It’ll
take minutes and could make the difference.
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