News item 1st November 2008

“ASBO” or WHAT?
COUNCILLOR BANNED FROM LOCAL HOSPITAL

A grieving West Lothian Councillor has been effectively banned from attending a thanksgiving and remembrance service at her local hospital. Executive Councillor for Health and Care Ellen Glass has been told in a letter from the Chair of NHS Lothian, Charles Winstanley, if she wishes to visit St. John’s Hospital in Livingston for any other reason than as a patient requiring emergency treatment she must contact them in advance and that they will arrange for her to be accompanied by a senior manager.

A distraught Councillor Glass and her family had arrangements in place to attend the annual service of thanksgiving and remembrance for those who have died in St. John’s Hospital being held in the Chapel on Sunday evening. Councillor Glass, a healthcare professional and former Nurse Manager in the hospital, lost a close relative to a terminal illness in the last few weeks. Having only been informed of this decision by email on Friday afternoon, she felt it unfair to expose her family at this saddening time to any possible humiliation, awkwardness, or distress and embarrassment by arriving and then being asked to vacate the building.

The Chair of NHS Lothian has also stated that any requests to enter St. John’s and any constituency enquiries should be directed through his Corporate Media Director.

Since when did an unelected Health Board have the right to have prior knowledge of any discussions between an Elected Politician and their constituents? How dare they exclude and deny patients the right to have an Elected Councillor visit them in their local Hospital, simply because they are ill.

This autocratic decision by the Chair of NHS Lothian would seem not to apply to the other two hospital sites in Lothian which cater for the medical and surgical requirements of West Lothian residents.

 

 

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