Tip of the NHS iceberg

PUBLIC reaction to closure of the children’s hospital ward in Paisley implies that the decision is based on pure finance and there may be imperatives not recognised here.

Only a short time ago the First Minister said this action was unlikely, yet this announcement implies that a radical change of mind has taken place or that an inexactitude occurred in her statement.

Little reassurance about this decision can be taken from the state of NHS Scotland generally.

Further insult occurs, therefore, to read that SNP chiefs have the audacity in a political broadcast to claim credit for a whole raft of achievements for which they were not the instigators.

Paisley may warrant further scrutiny, but it is the tip of a much bigger iceberg.

D. Duncan, aberdeen. MHAIRI BLACK, Paisley’s part-time MP, said she would hold the ‘Tories to account when they let Scotland down’.

I’m sure she is currently working out how to blame the Tories for the closure of the Ward 15 children’s unit at Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital.

anDy Dougan, glasgow. THE NHS should not be a political football, but when Nicola Sturgeon says in a TV debate there are no plans to shut Ward 15 at Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital then Health Secretary Shona Robison approves its closure, then it becomes one. DaviD McLean, Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire.