Healthcare Changes Will Hurt Patients

GREATER Glasgow and Clyde Health Board has given a clear sign of intent at the recent meetings re proposed changes at Vale of Leven. This will soon be a cottage hospital with no acute services. From the patients’ perspective, this is wholly unsatisfactory. However, I am seeing it from a GP’s perspective. The effects on recruitment and retention in primary care will be immense. This should worry the local population just as much as the closure of secondary care services.

Eventually, primary and secondary care services will be eroded so much that any new GP entering practice will see West Dunbartonshire as a no-go area. I do not have all the solutions, but it is clear to me these decisions are being fast-tracked by a politically-driven agenda – we all knew this announcement was coming, but the timing was crucial – just after the Scottish Parliament elections. Labour should hang its head in shame. Ultimately, it is the patients who will suffer.

Dr Robert McGonigle, Health Centre, Dumbarton.

(c) 2007 Herald, The; Glasgow (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.