Meeting over st John’s with health body
politicians have met with a health advisory body over the ongoing situation regarding the reduction of services at st John’s children’s ward in Livingston.
Councillors and Msps met with officials from the royal College of paediatrics and Child Health (rCpCH) who last year conducted a review with nHs Lothian which found that st John’s should have full-time paediatric services.
on Monday , nHs Lothian invited rCpCH to conduct a follow-up report due to the reduction of paediatric services at the hospital for over two months.
the politicians used the meeting to stress the importance of full time paediatric services at st John’s, stating that there should be no change to last year’s findings.
angela Constance, snp Msp for almond Valley, said:“I took the opportunity to inform the rCpCH that local views and local need for a 24/7 children’s ward remain the same. West Lothian is the same size as the city of Dundee, with a growing young population and the children’s ward, amongst other things, enables acutely ill children, who have required specialist care at Yorkhill or the sick Kids, to continue their rehabilitation locally.
“My colleagues and I will continue to press for the reinstatement of a sustainable 24/7 children’s service as soon as possible.”
neil Findlay, Labour Msp for Lothian, said:“this meeting was called at very short notice but all the representatives from across the political parties were singing with one voice making it crystal clear we would accept no downgrade of the service at st John’s and the option decided on last year must be implemented by nHs Lothian. nothing else will do.”
Lawrence Fitzpatrick, leader of West Lothian Council, welcomed the‘frank and open’talks with rCpCH cosultants who are conducting“a hard review of nHs Lothian’s approach to paediatric staffing.”
Councillor Fitzpatrick said:“It is imperative for West Lothian families a full service is restored as soon as possible.
“there are 184 paediatric units in scotland, and st John’s is the only one which has been subject to repeated closures, three times in the last five years.
“given West Lothian’s young and growing population, this is clearly not acceptable.”
Damian timson, leader of the Conservatives in West Lothian said: “It is both right and reassuring that rCpCH are conducting this review, I trust they will find areas nHs Lothian can improve on to get the paediatric Ward back to being fully operational.”
an rCpCH spokesperson said: “the report, which will cover progress made against the commitment to implement ‘option one’from the rCpCH’s 2016 review, will be completed and issued to nHs Lothian in due course.”
nHs Lothian were contacted for comment regarding the review meeting but had not responded to our requests as the Courier went to press this week.