15th
October 2004
Professor
David Kerr Kicks off Public NHS Debate in Greenock
Chair
of the National Advisory Group on Service Change (NAGSC), Oxford University’s
Professor David Kerr, is to kick off the long-awaited and much called for public
debate on the future shape of the NHS on Monday
18th October in Greenock.
Calls
for a national, strategic approach to NHS planning have intensified in recent
months as, across Scotland, public opposition to Health Board plans for service
redesign has grown. The outcry in
Inverclyde has been particularly fierce, with 4000 local residents marching
against NHS Argyll and Clyde’s proposals to centralise services at Paisley’s
Royal Alexandria Hospital in July and a petition against the plan attracting
some 56,000 signatures.
Following an invitation from MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Duncan McNeil, the top Glasgow-born academic is coming to the area to listen to the concerns of local people and to better understand the issues, their apprehension and their views on why it is important to retain local services. He hopes that this fact-finding trip will inform his thinking about the national framework for service change.
Prof Kerr will be
available to answer press questions, before meeting with
local clinicians, community representatives, patients and other interested
parties.
Speaking ahead of
the visit, Mr McNeil said
that Greenock was the perfect place to start a process of public
engagement on the national framework.
“Inverclyde
is on the raw end of a profoundly ill-considered and illogical attempt at
service re-organisation,” he said today.
“The
Clinical Strategy seriously suggests, remember, the centralisation of services
at Paisley’s already full to bursting RAH – which is only a matter of
minutes away from another massive super-hospital, Glasgow’s Southern General.
“This
is the perfect example of the kind of ludicrous results which the current
board-by-board, crisis-by-crisis, piecemeal approach gives us.
“The
question is how should the decisions which shape our NHS be taken – and where
better to start finding the answer than Greenock?
I am therefore delighted that Professor Kerr has accepted my
invitation to come to my community and hear, not just our anger, but our
ideas.”
In his formal
submission to NHS Argyll and Clyde’s consultation on the Clinical Strategy,
which closes today, Mr McNeil urges the Board to reject the plans and argues
that any revised proposals must have regard to Prof. Kerr’s findings.
He states:
“Ministerial
agreement has been secured not to issue any final decision on Health Board plans
for service change until the National Advisory Group on Service Change (NAGSC),
under the chairmanship of Professor David Kerr, reports to Ministers.
In such circumstances, I maintain that it would be unwise for the Board
to seek to press ahead with such a poor Clinical Strategy without regard to, or
the benefits of, Prof. Kerr’s findings.”
ENDS
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