Meeting of the Parliament 28 September 2016
I thank the cabinet secretary for that intervention because it is actually very helpful. She is saying that she might support proposals to close services and that the promises that were made before the election were not true. She has the ability to designate the proposed changes as major service changes and call them in, because ultimate responsibility lies with the cabinet secretary. However, instead of doing that, she is hiding behind faceless health boards. She should use the powers that she has and not duck and dive, and hide and say “It wisnae me.”
All of us, whatever our party allegiances, owe our place in this chamber to the public. Every one of us was elected as their voice to speak up and stand up for them. That is why we are urging support for Labour’s motion to ensure that all the proposals from the respective health boards are deemed major service changes and are called in by the cabinet secretary for decision. We seek the support of Parliament to ensure that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport has the final decision on what are clearly major service changes and to ensure today that our constituents have their voice heard in the Parliament.
We now have it in black and white from the health boards that the proposed downgrades or closures involve maternity services at the Vale of Leven hospital; the children’s ward at the Royal Alexandra hospital; maternity services at Inverclyde hospital; orthopaedics at Monklands hospital, in Airdrie; the Lightburn hospital, in the east end of Glasgow; in-patient beds at the centre for integrative care at Gartnavel hospital; and the centralisation of cleft palate services away from Edinburgh.
I am sure that other members will want to cover each proposal in more detail. However, before moving on, I welcome to the public gallery representatives of several of the local campaign groups, including Gerry McCann of the save Lightburn hospital campaign; Catherine Hughes of the centre for integrative care campaign; Evonne McLatchie of the cleft services campaign; Susan Archibald of the Vale of Leven save our services campaign; and Carole-Anne Davidson from the kids need our ward—KNOW—campaign for the Royal Alexandra hospital.
Those people are not interested in day-to-day political squabbles or partisan politics. [Interruption.] I am sorry that the cabinet secretary is tutting at that comment about people who are her constituents. She should show some respect for her own constituents. I know that she does not respect the chamber, but she should at least show respect for the constituents whom she seeks to represent, because they do not want us to squabble in the Parliament; they want their politicians to work together to protect their local services.
I will turn briefly to each service. Lightburn hospital is a specialist unit that provides rehabilitative care for older patients. It includes specialist units for stroke and post-trauma patients plus a day hospital and out-patient clinics. For some reason, the plan to close it is not significant enough to merit being a major change—[Interruption.] If the cabinet secretary wants to say that it does, that will be good.