THOUSANDS of concerned residents and health workers took part in a demonstration on Saturday aimed at protecting services at the Vale of Leven Hospital.

The Save our Services demo organised by campaign group Hospitalwatch comes in the wake of what is perceived as the loss of services and the recent decision by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to close ward 6 at the hospital.

Organisers estimated that between 3,500 and 4,000 demonstrators turned up to voice their disapproval. They began assembling early on Saturday morning at Christie Park in Alexandria for a rally before marching into the hospital grounds.

Amongst those present were candidates standing in the Scottish election in less than two weeks. The politicians including Maurice Corry, Jackie Baillie and Gail Robertson were left in no doubt as to what campaigners expect from them when it comes to maintaining services at the hospital.

Jim Moohan, an organiser and speaker at the rally, spoke to the Advertiser.

He said: “It was a real community event and it went very well and the message to the politicians is clear. We didn’t want the occasion being used as a political point-scoring exercise. We challenge them as politicians regardless of their parties to set up a forum to prevent the loss of any more services. The hospital has lost services for the last 15 years and is now down to two services. We told the politicians that turned up here that we will be keeping an eye on them. We gave them the message that this needs to stop, we need to put a stop to the rampage and pillaging that is taking place at the hospital – if it loses any more services then it won’t be viable. If they had worked as one 12 years ago we would be in a better place than we are. This was the final opportunity to have our voices heard before the Scottish election.”

Mr Moohan, also took the opportunity to thank hospital staff and the ambulance service for their hard work but took a swipe at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, saying: “The health board were once again shameful, asking us to postpone until after the election but we were determined to go ahead.

He has previous experience of mobilising the local communities over concerns at the hospital. He was the organiser of a demonstration almost a decade ago to prevent the hospital being “downgraded”.

A crowd estimated at between 10,000 to 20,000 took part back in 2007 and while the numbers didn’t come anywhere near that on Saturday, Mr Moohan insists residents have every right to be concerned now as they were then.

He added: “We need us all working together, political parties all need to come together under one voice. Politicians can’t ride two horses. If politicians don’t come on board then constituents will decide if they want that person to represent them.”

A spokesman for NHS GGC said: "Permission wasn’t granted for a protest on the VoL grounds on Saturday as this could be construed as being overtly political during the election period."