The nationalist voice - Iain Robertson, council leader

Published 20 Jan 2010 12:00

Recent figures show the dramatic effect the SNP Government's investment in tackling hospital acquired infections is having in hospitals across Scotland.

The number of C-diff cases amongst the over 65s has fallen by 55 per cent since the SNP Government took power in 2007.

From a record high during the last Labour Scottish Executive of 1,775 cases between January and March 2007, it has dropped to 805 cases in the most recent quarter.

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon has introduced a range of measures, including bringing cleaning back into the public sector and the introduction of the Healthcare Environment Inspectorate, which are all key steps in cutting C-diff rates across Scotland.

Currently Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board is performing better than any other health board and our own Vale of Leven Hospital has the lowest rates within the board area.

Halving the C-diff rates in just over two years is a major achievement of the SNP Government and the NHS, and it is time that opposition politicians including Jackie Baillie, Labour's Health spokesperson, acknowledged the real improvement in standards in our hospitals after their years of neglect.

It would appear that Des McNulty MSP's promotion to the position of Education shadow spokesperson has induced a very convenient bout of amnesia, or is it that there is an election just round the corner?

Making profit from our children's education was introduced by the Labour Party with the introduction of Private Public Partnership (PPP) to fund our schools building programme.

Thankfully the SNP Government has ruled out PPP as a future method of funding for either our schools or hospitals.

The SNP Government has recently agreed to the building of the new Southern General Hospital with conventional borrowing, which proved to be the most cost-effective and affordable proposal.

Unfortunately, we inherited a schools project which was already past the point of no return and the choice was to continue with the project or lose all of the schools. Whilst I and my colleagues are most certainly against PPP as a method of funding, we are fully committed to providing the best possible schools for our children now and in the future.

Only Labour and the Conservatives favour privatising education and health for profit.

Hypocrisy seems to be the name of the game for Labour politicians during the recent extreme Winter weather.

Whilst criticising Government and local authorities regarding gritting and salt stocks, Labour's leader in Holyrood, Iain Gray, fails to acknowledge that Labour had proposed a £10m cut in the roads budget last year and another £10m in the year ahead.

Had Labour's budget succeeded it would have had a disastrous impact on our roads during the bad weather.

Yet again we see Labour politicians playing politics with a very serious issue which affects us all. During what has been the worst freeze in more than 25 years, West Dunbartonshire Council has managed to keep our priority main roads and priority walking routes gritted.

Working around the clock our roads and grounds maintenance staff have pulled out all the stops.

Unlike neighbouring Glasgow and East Dunbartonshire, our teams succeeded in keeping West Dunbartonshire moving and deserve our fullest praise.

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This article appeared in Clydebank Post 20 Jan 10

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