Stracathro: our memories differ

Sir, - I was concerned to read in The Courier (November 2) that in her pitch to Angus Council regarding potential appointment to NHS Tayside Board, Ms Julie Bell ‘spoke of a health career involvement at local, regional and national level, highlighting her work as a strategic director of NHS 24 and as part of the strategic review team which saw Stracathro Hospital retained in the early 2000s’.

The implication that she, as a member of NHS Tayside Strategic Review Team, helped to retain Stracathro Hospital is of concern. This is not as I recall the then situation.

Some individuals at NHS Tayside at the time of the Acute Service Review were determined that Stracathro Hospital should close.

It was saved by the people of the Angus and the Mearns who supported the Save Our Stracathro Hospital (SOS) campaign, which was led by the Angus and Mearns Action to Save Stracathro Group, Brechin and District Patients Association and the Stracathro Hospital Staff Action Committee.

The determination of the people of Angus and the Mearns, the 25,000 signatures and the unity of purpose of the Stracathro Hospital

Actions Groups saved this important Angus hospital and helped retain many of its services.

I am surprised council leader Bob Myles, given his active involvement as a member of Angus and Mearns Action to Save Stracathro Group, did not seek to correct the erroneous assertion that NHS Tayside Strategic Review Team ‘saved’ Stracathro Hospital.

Given the current turmoil with national, regional and local government, it is high time those who ‘govern’ deal in facts not fiction. Ronald N Macdonald. 28 Church Street, Carnoustie.