14th
May 2007
How Many Addict Babies is the NHS Making?
McNeil Questions Health Chiefs
MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Duncan
McNeil, wants health board bosses to reveal just how many more babies the NHS is
condemning to a life of danger and squalor at the hands of drug-addict parents.
Mr
McNeil, who stood in the May 3rd elections on a platform of getting
even tougher on drug abuse and who was returned with an increased majority, said
the public needed answers following reports that a heroin addict had given birth
to twins after getting a £2,500 course of fertility treatment on the NHS.
In
a letter to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Chief Executive, Mr Tom Divers OBE, Mr
McNeil said:
“It
was with some alarm that I read recent media reports concerning the decision to
make NHS fertility treatment available to drug addicts.
Given the impoverished, dangerous and short lives which we know the
children of drug addicts are likely to lead, I am surprised that public money
would be spent condemning more children to this fate.”
He
continued:
“I
would be grateful if you could advise me if it is Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s
policy to screen any patients applying for fertility treatment for drug abuse,
whether through drug testing or by consulting their medical records.
And, if applicants are indeed screened, how many in, say, the past 12
months, have tested positive and, of these, how many were subsequently
successful in obtaining fertility treatment?
I would be similarly grateful if you could confirm whether the
decision-making process takes into account social work and police reports.”
Speaking
to the Telegraph, Mr McNeil added that
he would be asking questions about the wider issues in Holyrood.
“This outrageous episode poses a number of questions about the process by which decisions are taken on to whom fertility treatments should be made available and I will be pursuing these with the Scottish Executive.
“At
the very least, the decent, hardworking people who have been denied fertility
treatment because they may be, for example, overweight deserve an explanation.
No-one seems too concerned about their human rights.
“Just
what sort of vetting checks, if any, are in place? Who sets the criteria? Who
makes sure they are adhered to? The
vetting system is either being ignored by misguided medics or it is not worthy
of the name.”
ENDS
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