Amid all of the constitutional wrangling going on just now it is easy to lose sight of the issues that matter. Health and social care seem to have suffered this fate lately, both nationally and locally.
I brought a motion to council in June asking for a report on the costs and benefits of the SNP administration’s decision to almost double the charge for the community alarm system to £5 per week. This was in response to letters to the leader of the Council by the seniors’ forum and the trades council which were ignored.
This was confirmed in last week’s Clydebank Post.
Instead, the leader accused me of hyperbole - of exaggerating the situation. I replied that he was therefore accusing these respected local organisations of exaggeration. And this from an administration that promised consultation and transparency! They voted down my motion by 10-9. Their excuse was that elderly and disabled people could pay for the increase from their attendance allowance or PIP.
As we all know, the Tory government often makes it difficult to claim these benefits. The SNP made the same excuse when they abolished Labour’s free Care of Garden scheme. So local SNP policy depends on Tory benefit policy?
On top of that, they were criticised by Nicola Sturgeon for making unnecessary cuts to services. A Labour council would abolish all charges that interfere with health and social care integration and affect the elderly and disabled. We would campaign for total integration of health and social care free at the point of use.
We also need more local access to the Golden Jubilee National Hospital. I have been campaigning for years for local cardiac emergencies to be taken to the Clydebank hospital. I am glad to see this pragmatic approach has now been adopted. But, similarly, local people need access to the X-ray facilities at the Golden Jubilee when our new health centre opens, which will not have its own X-ray facilities.
The SNP Government needs to be more flexible and more responsible in how it deals with hospitals, as the ongoing super-hospitals fiasco shows. By contrast, health and social care is a top priority for Labour, locally and nationally.
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