Archives: Health boss say future of Inverclyde Royal secure

Some services, such as paediatrics, could even get better, health boss Tom Divers said, but he admitted the return of a consultant-led maternity unit would be “a huge challenge”.

The chief executive of NHS Greater Glasgow was grilled at the first of two public consultation meetings in Inverclyde on health service provision following the proposed dissolution of NHS Argyll & Clyde next year.

He said the disgraced health board would not be allowed to take any major decisions on service change in the next few months without consultation.

This included plans to move hospital lab services from the IRH to Paisley, he said.

And he promised a full review of the board’s acute clinical strategy that favoured centralisation of hospital services in Paisley.

“We will overhaul the strategy as quickly as possible over the coming months to see if there are different solutions,” he said.

“We can give no guarantees, but we are confident that with Inverclyde Royal as part of the Greater Glasgow area there are other models of care that can be found.”

Asked if he could give an assurance Inverclyde Royal would not be shut he said: “Absolutely!”

And he said he had been made aware by people at the Paisley public consultation meeting that services at the Royal Alexandra Hospital were already stretched.

Mr Divers said the responsibility of the new enlarged Greater Glasgow health board – that would take on a new name once Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and possibly parts of North Ayrshire and Argyll and Bute are included — would be to “ensure we can deliver care equitably to all”.

He said he was left in no doubt as to what people in Inverclyde wanted. “I have the expectations of the community resounding in my ears,” he said.

Provost Ciano Rebecchi — who cut short an October school week break in Tenerife to be at the meeting — called for greater cooperation between NHS Argyll & Clyde and NHS Greater Glasgow during the take-over period.