Scottish
Parliament Elections
We would like to thank everyone in Renfrewshire who entrusted
their votes to Scottish Labour, we regret that on this occasion
we did not secure victory. We shall continue
to campaign and put forward an agenda for change, a positive
course of action for Scotland within the United Kingdom and
oppose moves for a divisive and damaging referendum.
Kids Need Our Ward (KNOW)
Of
all the things Labour can be proud of achieving in government,
the one that towers above the rest is our National Health
Service. Nearly 70 years ago, a Labour government set up the
NHS based on patient need, not the ability the pay. It is
doubtless that anyone here in Renfrewshire has not called on the
NHS when they or someone they care for needed medical help.
But now, after a decade of an SNP Government
at Holyrood, our health service is in distress.
As a result of the SNP’s mismanagement NHS
Greater Glasgow and Clyde are proposing to close the paediatric
ward at the RAH and move children's in patient care to either
Yorkhill or the Royal Hospital for Children at the Queen
Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
The Kids Need Our Ward (KNOW) campaign,
spearheaded by local people who are deeply alarmed by these
proposals has been supported from the outset by the local Labour
Party and we have joined the groups members at events aimed at
highlighting to the wider population of Renfrewshire the threat
facing our Children's Ward.
This month, local Labour MSP Neil Bibby,
members of Renfrewshire Council's Labour Group, along with our
general election candidates, Alison Taylor and Alison Dowling
joined with concerned parents and local residents at a protest
event attended by Scottish Labour Leader Kezia Dugdale MSP and
Labour's Shadow Health Minister Anas Sarwar MSP.
Neil Bibby MSP, our local Councillors and
general election candidates were also on hand to support members
of the KNOW campaign when the SNP Health Minister Shona Robison
paid a fleeting visit to Paisley to attend an invitation only
meeting arranged by SNP MP Mhairi Black which shut out many of
the key members of the KNOW campaign from having their voices
heard.
Labour fully support keeping our Children's
Ward open and we will fight every day to protect our NHS: it is
in our DNA.
