Press Release
28th July 2003
“Don’t
Give in to Bully Boy Tactics,” McNeil Urges Health Board
On
the eve of its crunch meeting to decide the future of the Rankin Maternity Unit,
MSP for Greenock & Inverclyde, Duncan McNeil, has warned members of Argyll
and Clyde Health Board not to fall victim to "bully boy tactics."
Voicing
his concerns that Paisley-based doctors are threatening to close the Rankin by
the backdoor if the Health Board does not vote to centralise all consultant-led
inpatient services at the Royal Alexandria Hospital, Mr McNeil said:
"Anyone
looking at the facts can see, not only that there is a cast-iron case for the
Rankin, but also that the plan currently on the table does not offer a long-term
solution to the pressures facing our NHS. I’m
sure members of the Health Board are no different.
"They
know what the right choice is, but they are not in an easy position.
Senior doctors in Paisley are effectively holding a gun to the Board’s
head, threatening, if members don’t do what they want and begin to centralise
services in the RAH, that – just as they did at the Vale of Leven – they
will simply withdraw consultant cover and collapse the service by the backdoor.
"I
know this puts the Health Board in an unenviable situation and I sympathise with
that. But this decision has to be made in the interests of patients,
not in the interests of doctors’ career development plans.
We cannot give in to bully boy tactics.
If we do, they’ll just do it again and again and again until the
concept of an accessible, community-based NHS is dead."
ENDS
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