THE future of the Vale of Leven Hospital, Geilston House and Garden in Cardross, and the provision of superfast broadband in Helensburgh and Lomond are all in focus in this week's crop of letters to the Advertiser.

To have your say on any local issue just email editorial@helensburghadvertiser.co.uk with 'Letter' in the subject line and your name and address - we'll publish the best of the bunch in our next issue, on sale on Thursday, July 27. Happy writing!

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I was at the public meeting in Helensburgh on July 3 at which four or five hundred , mainly elderly, concerned people turned out to protest at the continuing disaster that is the Vale of Leven Hospital. 

There is great concern at the increasing need for people in this area to have to travel to the other side of Paisley for anything other than an ambulance job.  This journey is always difficult but without a car it is often impossible.

Ten years ago, after much mismanagement and underfunding, the Argyll and Clyde Health Board was abolished by the Labour and LibDem government of the time.  It was divided between Highland health board and Greater Glasgow health board (GGHB) with Argyll and Bute going to Highland and the rest going to GGHB. 

As an administrative fix the Highland board, based in Inverness, set up a small funding organisation to look after Argyll and Bute but mandated that all health care for the area was to be delivered by GGHB.

When the SNP Scottish government was elected a review was commissioned because of concerns about health care in both West Dunbartonshire and Argyll & Bute; in particular the Vale was seen to be at risk due to centralisation within Glasgow. 

This review resulted in an agreement between the Scottish Government and GGHB, enshrined in the document “Vision for the Vale”.  This document contains promises that GGHB would maintain and seek to improve the services provided at the Vale for the people living within its catchment area.

Over the years the Vale has become a political football.  Our MSP Jackie Baillie berates the SNP government as each new service cut leaks out.  The Scottish government blames the GGHB, quoting the Vision for the Vale. 

Despite the agreement, GGHB have salami sliced services at The Vale to the extent that it is on the brink of being reduced to only an outpatient clinic staffed by doctors based at, and working from, the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley. 

Maternity is under threat, I hear that haematology has lost its respected consultant, without replacement, and now the, GP-staffed out of hours service is planned to be decimated.

GGHB have no direct responsibility to look after Argyll & Bute and are centralising services within the Glasgow area.  The SNP government are lacking in courage to deal properly with the situation. 

It is an ugly can of worms and whatever action they take will produce a fusillade of SNP Bad headlines. 

I have written to the Health Secretary suggesting that the health board organisation needs to be revisited but have only had a reply referring me to GGHB by one of the functionaries.

It is the Scottish government’s responsibility fix the problem by either reorganising areas of responsibility or reinstating a new Argyll & Clyde Health Board.

D.S. Blackwood, 1 Douglas Drive East, Helensburgh

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(Copy of a letter to John Brown, chairman of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde)

I write to your good office on behalf of Hospitalwatch and the communities of West Dunbartonshire and Argyll requesting a meeting to discuss the future of our hospital going forward.

I have written to the Health Secretary on three occasions seeking answers so that we in turn can feed back to the communities in the area to allay their everyday fears and concerns for their families, friends and relatives.

Unfortunately the same reply, ‘We have a positive future’, is received every time.

That, Mr Brown, will not stand up to close scrutiny without qualification on capital investment, infrastructure, skills and services.

The Vale of Leven Hospital is now a shell of its former self and functioning under a cloud of uncertainty.

It is absolutely clear that in due course we shall reach a stage of non viability to the public purse under the present strategy of centralisation.

The present crisis within the out-of hours GP service has created anger among the people in this area. In their view there is a clear strategy to undermine that service.

How can that service operate in an efficient manner on behalf of the patients when, for example, they are received and diagnosed by the GP to be given antibiotics or some other medication, but then have to travel on a 20 mile plus round trip either to Glasgow or Paisley to a pharmacy to receive that medication?

It is completely absurd and in the view of the communities deliberate as part of an aim to collapse the service.

That out-of-hours GP service is a backbone of hands-on medical expertise in time of need within local reach.

With respect to the problem with recruitment of GPs, it is for management to deal with this. Their handling of the issue highlights a failure regarding proper monitoring of the ‘Vision for the Vale’.

The potential result is that the service could be deemed clinically unsafe and a direct threat to the hospital’s future.

The ‘Vision for the Vale’, whilst good at the time, is now shredded and inefficient.

We recently held a 24 hour vigil which resulted in a bed sheet being signed by over 5,000 people - young, old, disabled and, to their credit, hospital staff, who work under a cloud of fear and uncertainty.

That effort was completely ignored by the Heath Secretary and sadly by the health board.

It is unacceptable that it may well take a tragic consequence to occur before we have answers to our concerns. That, God forbid, could happen.

There is a moral obligation and duty on the health board to give answers and a strategy for our future life care going forward.

We place our trust in your good office to cease the disruption of our hospital on behalf of the geographically widespread population of 100,000.

Community meetings held in Alexandria and Helensburgh on June 26 and July 3 are demanding immediate action and answers from the health board and the Scottish Government and not to be left waiting under the disguise of formal consultation.

Our first request on behalf of these communities is to meet at your earliest convenience to take this matter forward.

Jim Moohan, Chair of Hospitalwatch

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I read with interest Craig Borland's article 'Supporters slam trust over Geilston's future' in the Helensburgh Advertiser of July 13.

That article records that supporters of Geilston claim, correctly, that the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) may legally dispose of Geilston House, its contents and estate, although this is clearly not in the spirit of the bequest.

The NTS are fully aware of this, since they stated in 2000 that the Trust's purpose in owning Geilston was to preserve it for the benefit of the nation, retaining the significance of the site and encouraging access to and understanding of it.

These aims were to be accomplished bearing in mind the donor's wishes, which, though not formally or legally expressed as conditions of the gift, were known to the NTS.

These were to preserve the property to the high standards set by the donor and to preserve the integrity of the house and collections retaining the latter in Geilston.

The purpose of the NTS is to preserve the properties entrusted to its care but instead of fulfilling this obligation it has let Geilston House become unfit for habitation, and allowed the contents of the house, valued by the NTS in 1998 at £490,000, to deteriorate in storage for more than 20 years. Moreover, the large legacy of over £800,000 to maintain the property, as the donor wished, has been absorbed into NTS general funds.

It is now time for the NTS to redress a situation of its own negligence and turn round the deficit it claims to be £85,000.

Geilston is undoubtedly the property in the care of the NTS which is of most interest to Americans. The Donald family, who resided at Geilston during the 18th century, were Virginia merchants and tobacco lords.

Alexander Donald, who spent his childhood and youth at Geilston, was a close friend of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington and influential in drawing up the Declaration of Independence.

This begs the question: has the National Trust for Scotland Foundation USA, which since 2000 has given $8 million dollars to fund various projects for the NTS, been approached to fund the suggestions that have been made to draw in more visitors and raise the profile of the property?

Your article last week reported the claim by the NTS that Geilston only had 800 paying visitors out of 11,277 in 2016/7 - but it omitted to mention that Geilston recruits each year over 140 new members to the Trust.

This is well above the average for NTS properties and, of course, those joining are not expected to pay an entrance fee.

Again, the property's close association with Glasgow's shipbuilding and related industries should have stirred the NTS to seek funds from interested bodies and turn the property into a centre explaining the significance of Glasgow's mercantile and industrial history and the families that made Glasgow the second city of the British Empire.

No member of the management, apart from the property manager, appeared at the open day held in Geilston garden last month as part of Scotland's Gardens Scheme - or at the Hill House last March when Lyon & Turnbull in conjunction with LADFAS (Lomond & Argyll Fine Arts Society) held a valuation day and reception which raised more than £1,000 for the Hill House.

Instead of the apparent disinterest of the management, NTS members expect energy, enthusiasm and imagination. Let us hope the NTS will have the courage to face its failure and turn it into a success.

Nigel Allan, via email

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Many will recognise the frustrations on the provision of superfast broadband as reflected in the comments of Councillor George Freeman in his opinion column in the Advertiser's July 13 edition.

Many are still waiting for BT and Openreach to fulfil their promises.

It is perhaps ironic that one tiny, isolated, unserved pocket in the west end of Helensburgh includes the home of John Logie Baird who, as well as inventing television, was, 90 years ago, the first man to develop and patent the use of fibre as a medium for the transmission of images.

Many of the surrounding houses, even neighbours, are offered superfast. Perhaps Openreach could emulate Logie Baird by slinging a connection over the street.

Nowadays there are few carters in danger of being decapitated, as is said nearly to have happened all these years ago.

Ralph Risk, 2 Lower Sutherland Crescent, Helensburgh