Speaking out for kids

I was proud to welcome local activists from the Kids Need Our Ward campaign to the Scottish Parliament.

They have taken the fight to save the Children’s Ward at the RAH from Paisley to Holyrood, meeting with MSPs and delivering a 17,000-strong petition to the SNP Government in Edinburgh.

A few days later, they made their voices heard again when Health Secretary Shona Robison returned to Paisley.

The fate of the children’s ward is in her hands.

As I have said before, convincing the health secretary to reject this closure is now our last hope, if we are to secure the future of Ward 15.

Our case is strong and our cause is right.

I have been working to persuade the Scottish Government to save the ward for more than 18 months.

Every year, the children’s ward at the RAH deals with thousands of cases and hundreds of families.

We know there are capacity issues at the new children’s hospital in Glasgow and we know that the centralisation of more services out of Renfrewshire amounts to the downgrading of the RAH itself.

The SNP say they are listening, that they will not make any decisions without hearing the views of the community.

Surely now, after months of petitions and demonstrations and debate, there can be no doubt about what the people of Paisley think.

This ward is precious to the whole community.

It is time the government backed down and saved it.