Report to the People
12th December 2005
Bounds
of Possibility
The sad death of Tony
Connolly, a good friend and colleague to many of us, cast a shadow over last
week. As his immediate family and
his wider trade union and Labour Party family know well, he was never one to sit
back and rest when he thought things could be improved.
The constant desire to make
things better is an attitude we would do well to adopt.
And it was perhaps fitting that, on the same day Tony was buried, bold
changes to the way our health services are delivered were outlined at Holyrood.
It would have been easy for
the Health Minister to shy away from this. But, back in May, he announced the abolition of NHS Argyll and
Clyde and the writing off of the £80 million debt it had managed to run up.
And, on Thursday, after listening to our community and others over the
past few months, the Minister outlined its replacement.
Put simply, our health
services here in Inverclyde will come under the wing of NHS Greater Glasgow.
This means, as I said during the debate, that the focus can be put
squarely on tackling poor public health in urban areas.
And, as it boasts university-led acute services, Greater Glasgow does not
face the same recruitment and retention challenges which threaten local services
in Argyll and Clyde.
This is not a magical panacea
for our NHS. But it does remove one
of the difficulties which has been holding it back.
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