Councillors clash over NHS cost cuts
Bibby: Axing services will impact on the vulnerable
Podiatry services, schoolbased nurses and hospital evening transport are all being axed as part of a NHS costcutting plan.
Councillors sitting on the Renfrewshire Integrated Joint Board (IJB) for Health and Social Care voted to approve planned budget cuts at a meeting last Friday.
The board is run by Renfrewshire Council and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and is made up of four councillors and four lay persons.
The cuts have shaved £2.4million off the health board’s budget for 2017/18 and former board member Councillor Derek Bibby is angry that they were passed with no discussion.
The deputy Labour group leader said: “It has taken the SNP-Tory Alliance exactly 35 days in office to support cuts which will reduce services to the most needy and vulnerable
“I am appalled, though not surprised, that the four councillors, far from opposing the cuts, did not even comment or ask questions about the impact of these proposals. They remained silent.
“I suspect that they did not know what they were approving.”
The meeting was chaired by Councillor Jacqueline Cameron and attended by her fellow SNP councillors Jennifer Adam-McGregor and LisaMarie Hughes as well as Conservative councillor Scott Kerr. Previous attempts to make the cuts at the previous meeting last November were rejected by the Labour councillors on the board.
Since the local government elections, the SNP is governing Renfrewshire as a minority administration.
Councillor Bibby added: “The podiatry service has been cut to the bone with a number of people who previously used the service now excluded.
“The school nurse service will now be centralised which means nurses will no longer be based in schools with implications for child protection.
“The removal of the hospital evening transport service has serious implications in the event of the proposed closure of the children’s ward 15 at the RAH, the issue of parents and sick children having to travel to Glasgow and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
“In approving these cuts, those councillors have simply confirmed that the IJB is a back door way of processing the SNP Government cuts to health and social care that enables Nicola Sturgeon to blame local councils.”
Councillor Jacqueline Cameron, who chaired the meeting, defended the councillors’ actions.
She explained: “Far from being unaware of the what we were approving, the SNP councillors spent time thoroughly examining the efficiency gains suggested and were confident that there would be no negative impact on people in Renfrewshire or frontline services.
“The hospital evening transport has had no requests for 18 months since visiting hours in RAH were extended, and as there has been no decision made on Ward 15, this not currently relevant.
“Changes to the school nurses’ immunisation programme is part of a national programme and not specific to Renfrewshire.
“This is the usual skewing of facts, hypocrisy and spin from a Labour group who left the Renfrewshire IJB high and dry in March 2017, refusing to pass their budget when every other IJB in Scotland and passed theirs.
“Councillor Bibby and the Labour group know only too well that these savings had to be agreed for the IJB to meet their legal requirements, but they refused to face up to this responsibility for fear of criticism and left the SNP to do the courageous and responsible thing and clear up their mess.”
She added: “In terms of the accusation that we remained silent, can I suggest that perhaps the composure and quiet confidence of the female councillors in our gender-balanced group is in stark contrast to the macho posturing and bluster Councillor Bibby is used to from his Labour colleagues.”