SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 21/10/03

The Scottish Socialist Party have condemned the Greater Glasgow NHS Board’s decision to close the Queen Mother’s Maternity Hospital in Glasgow.
[BBC News story]
Carolyn Leckie MSP, the SSP’s health spokesperson said; "Everyone from the clinicians providing the service to the local communities served by the hospital knows that the decision to close the Queen Mother’s is wrong.
"But now we have to go through the farce of a consultation where the main decision has already been made and won’t be changed.
"We all know that these consultations are just a sham, a pretence that the public have been involved in decision making, when, in fact, the public are never listened to.
"In Inverclyde over 90% of responses to their consultation on maternity services opposed the end of full maternity services in Greenock and Vale of Leven. Did the Argyll and Clyde Health Board take a blind bit of notice? Did Malcolm Chisholm? No he’s just rubber stamped that decision and he’ll rubber stamp Greater Glasgow’s.
"As a midwife I know that these are not re-organisations of Maternity Services they are cuts that will lead to greater risks to pregnant women. Yet these are the last people that the bureaucrats on the Health Board’s ask about the services that are needed.
"These cuts in maternity services will end up costing the lives of women and children yet New Labour won’t lift a finger to defend the communities they affect."