First
Minister Backs Local Health Services
First
Minister, Jack McConnell, says there is “a pressing need and demand in our
local communities to have services delivered as locally and humanly as
possible.”
Tackled
by MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Duncan McNeil, on the issue at First
Minister’s Question Time, the First Minister declared that “as many services
as possible must be delivered locally.”
In
the last ever First Minister’s Question Time on the Mound, Mr McNeil said
Argyll and Clyde Health Board was “reverting to type” by publishing
“deeply unpopular and questionable plans” aimed at “centralising
everything in sight.”
What,
he asked the First Minister, “can be done to find a better way forward than
the deeply unpopular and questionable plans that are currently being presented
in places such as Argyll and Clyde?”
In
his reply, the First Minister underlined the importance of where health services
are delivered. He said:
“We
need to ensure that our health service performs as effectively as possible, with
the best possible technology and in the best locations. As
many services as possible must be delivered locally, too.
“Although
changes are taking place in health technology and the provision of health
services, which require centres of excellence to be established, there is also a
pressing need and demand in our local communities to have services delivered as
locally and humanly as possible. Getting the right balance, not just in Argyll
and Clyde but elsewhere in Scotland, is the aim of the Executive.”
ENDS
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