20th
February 2007
McNeil Welcomes Health Board Backing for
IRH Future
MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Duncan
McNeil, has welcomed today’s endorsement by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde of
plans to secure the future of Inverclyde Royal Hospital.
He
said he was delighted that so many in the Inverclyde community had responded to
his call and registered their support for the plans – a fact which was greeted
with some surprise by health board chiefs.
Under
the proposed arrangements, which were accepted by the board and will now go to
Scottish Executive Ministers for formal approval, Accident and Emergency
services, the vast bulk of inpatient services and virtually all outpatient and
day services will be maintained at the IRH.
Mr
McNeil said:
“Just as it was important
for us to leave the old Argyll and Clyde board in no doubt about the strength of
our opposition to their plans to fillet and downgrade the IRH, so it was vital
that we let the new Greater Glasgow and Clyde board know that we firmly back
this move to, among other things, secure Accident and Emergency and inpatient
services at the IRH.
“I’m delighted that so
many of my constituents answered my call to make their voices heard and that the
board has now approved the plans to save the IRH.
“As I said to the board in
my own submission, I have argued for years that access to medical services is as
important as the quality of those services – a state-of-the-art health service
you cannot access is as much use as no service at all.
I therefore back the fact that these proposals will protect large numbers
of my constituents from being forced from the IRH to the RAH.
Indeed, far from more patients being forced out of Inverclyde, these
changes will actually enable more patients who currently attend the Golden
Jubilee National Hospital for certain procedures, such as orthopaedic surgery
and cataract operations, to be treated locally.”
ENDS
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