14th March 2010.

ACTION NOT BLUSTER REQUIRED ON HEALTHCARE.

May I once again thank Councillor McGinty for highlighting the continuing issue of healthcare provision in West Lothian. Yet again he and the labour party are unable to bring anything of consequence to the table. No surprises there as it was the Labour party who sold our services down the river by sitting on their hands and ignoring their conscience when the heart was ripped out of St. John’s Hospital. No resignations at the time only the comment from the Labour choir “Not us gov – it was them in Auld Reekie!” Denial then – denial now in ’G’ sharp. But there is now a whiff of an election in the air.

With their combined heads in the sand for the last three years, he and his colleagues have chosen not to acknowledge the massive investments in the future of our hospital. Changes, which will ensure our hospital’s future for years to come, serving the community and looking after the varied interests of the excellent members of staff who work there. Other than sniping and continuing to bluster the Labour party has done nothing to contribute to the ongoing and successful campaign led from the front by the Action to Save St. John’s Hospital Party. The Labour party have never in the last three years offered or given any support for the return of services to our hospital they continue to believe were never stripped away.

My colleagues Ellen Glass and Gordon Beurskens with me are fully engaged on the commitments we made to “keep healthcare services” local. We have always stated that this would take time and would not happen overnight. The Administration of this Council, unlike the previous incumbent, has not paid lip service to healthcare provision at St. John’s Hospital and we have over the last three years secured the future of St. John’s Hospital as an emergency acute hospital, and will continue to work towards the return of Emergency Surgery and Elective Orthopaedics.

The Action to Save St. John’s Hospital Party fully supports the Stakeholder Group – a platform for debate where local elected members have the opportunity to shape further healthcare provision. A group set up at our instigation and endorsed by the Minister of Health and Well Being.

We have been fully involved and have supported the positive developments at St. John’s Hospital such as the £8.2 million investment to develop the short stay surgical centre enabling LOCAL treatment in areas such as orthopaedics, urology, gynaecology, plastic surgery, ENT and general surgery. The £3.3 million investment in an endoscopy unit, which will enable the implementation of a bowel cancer screening programme. I have yet to see any acknowledgement from the Labour party’s health spokesperson, congratulating these successes, but with heads in the sand I doubt if they will have noticed the wind of change sweeping our community. My colleagues Ellen, Gordon and I acknowledge there are major challenges ahead for our health services not least because of the current financial climate and the cuts courtesy of a Westminster Labour Government. We remain committed to the protection of our frontline and local NHS services. The founding fathers of the Labour Party which like us started as a “pressure” group and evolved into a “single issue” Party would be turning in their graves at the blustering of the inheritors who have managed to bail out the banks and allow big bonus payments of millions of pounds to those who failed yet refuse to fund frontline services in both the public and healthcare sectors. Heads should be held in shame, but that is not possible as they are still firmly imbedded in the sand.

Buried but not forgotten by you the readers of this letter.

 

John Cochrane

Councillor

Action to Save St. John’s Hospital Party