Former health secretary chased by ex-aide in car park is filmed
POLITICAL EDITOR
BY TOM GORDON
FORMER SNP health secretary Alex Neil is chased round a car park and accused of “lying” over hospital cuts by his ex-office manager in an extraordinary new YouTube video. Neil is shown being pursued by former aide Peter Owens after a meeting with NHS Lanarkshire earlier this month and accused of trying to downgrade Monklands Hospital “by the back door”.
Hewas elected as the SNP MSP for Airdrie & Shotts in 2011 after making the A&E at Monklands in Airdrie a central campaign issue.
In a party video at the time, Neil shakes hands with Owens outside the hospital and promises the SNP’s “total commitment” to keep the A&E open “on a permanent basis”. He goes on: “Not only that, we will invest in the future of Monklands hospital and the A&E to make sure the people of Airdrie and Coatbridge have the service they deserve and need.”
However, last month NHS Lanarkshire decided to move trauma and orthopaedic services out of Monklands to Wishaw and Hairmyres hospitals by the end of the year.
Campaigners say this will downgrade the Monklands A&E and force patients to make long journeys for treatment. Five orthopaedic consultants have warned patients will suffer.
Owens was Neil’s office manager during the 2011 election, but is now spokesman for a protest group Stop Monklands Orthopaedic A&E Downgrade, which has attracted 4,000 signatures to an online petition.
On August 3, Owens and two others confronted and filmed Neil leaving the hospital. “Your Government is downgrading this hospital by the back door,” Owens says, prompting Neil to reply: “Utter rubbish! Utter rubbish!”
Neil says he is “happy to have a civilised meeting” with Owens, but not “a shouting match”.
But as Neil walks through the car park, Owens reminds him that both men had stood on the hospital steps in 2011 campaigning to save its services.
Airdrie SNP MP Neil Gray is also featured in the four-minute film tutting that Owens and other anti-cuts campaigners are “outrageous”. Coatbridge SNP MSP Fulton MacGregor watches silently in the background.
“We are not going to let the A&E be downgraded,” Neil insists, adding: “I’m not going to engage in this farce.”
Owens responds: “That [saving services] is the reason you were voted in here. So you are lying to the people of this area once again.”
Neil, who was SNP health secre- tary from 2012-14, responds: “This is rubbish”, then, apparently confused, starts walking back the way he came. He is joined by Gray, a former staffer who is now the Airdrie & Shotts MP.
“Why are you here?” Owens demands of Gray. “This isn’t in your remit. Why are you here? This isn’t a Westminster issue. Is this party support for the party line?”
Gray replies: “The way to do this is to have a civilised meeting not to have a shouting match.”
As Owens refuses to back off, Gray tuts: “This is outrageous, outrageous.”
When a second protester asks: “What’s outrageous about democracy?”, Gray replies: “This isn’t democracy, this is a shouting match.”
Owens keeps up his harangue as Neil and Gray stride away, telling them: “Another lie from the SNP. Is it a party built on lies? You’re a dis- grace!” The health board and Scottish Government strongly deny the accusation, and say 98 per cent of emergencies and 95 per cent of trauma cases will still go to Monklands.
But Owens told the Sunday Herald the loss of orthopaedic and trauma would see the Monklands A&E reduced to a “minor ailments unit”.
Labour MSP Elaine Smith said: “The SNP made the people of Monklands a promise and clearly local people are intent on holding them to those promises and won’t accept cuts to services.
“The SNP Government can still step in and stop these cuts to the Monklands, but SNP politicians seem determined to pull the wool over the eyes of local people. It won’t work.”
Neil did not respond to calls or email. An SNP spokesman said: “Alex Neil is fully committed to working to protect services at Monklands.”