Jackie Baillie MSP and Vale of Leven and the RAH hospitals.
By Bill Heaney
Health Board bosses have been told to hold the bus before deciding how to provide transport links between Vale of Leven, Dumbarton and Helensburgh.
Dumbarton constituency MSP Jackie Baillie is at loggerheads with the NHS board over the axing of a hospital bus link to the Royal Alexandra Hospital.
Labour’s health spokesperson wrote to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde chief exedcutive, Professor Jann Gardner, after news broke that the service 340 would be withdrawn on June 28th.
But the MSP said she felt “fobbed off”, after her demand was ignored, and she was instead issued with a standard response.
The service 340, has operated since 2009 and is currently provided by local bus firm McColl’s.
NHS bosses want to replace the subsidised service with their own free in-house transport, which will accommodate only staff and patients with a valid appointment.
Some visitors will be left out in the cold by the changes, due to begin on June 29th.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde fund 90 per cent of the current service, while cash-strapped SPT coughed up the remaining 10 per cent.
Health chiefs committed to providing a link for locals when the bus services at the Vale of Leven Hospital were downgraded.
Communities in Helensburgh, Dumbarton and Alexandria are otherwise without direct public transport links to Paisley.
The MSP has now taken up the case with the health board and has pledged to fight on.
She said: “I will not be fobbed off by NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde.
“The 340 service is of vital importance to communities in Helensburgh and Lomond, Dumbarton and the Vale of Leven, and simply must continue.
“It is unthinkable to leave these communities with only an infrequent link and leave visitors out in the cold and unable to see loved ones in hospital.
“To axe the current standard of provision is a betrayal to our communities.”
The MSP has written again to Professor Gardner and has demanded answers from the Scottish Government.