CAMPAIGNERS from across Dumbarton and the Vale will head to the Scottish Parliament this week for a demonstration against cuts to local health services.

The rally, taking place on Thursday, September 21, has been organised by the Hospitalwatch campaign group and the area's MSP Jackie Baillie after public meetings earlier this year attracted hundreds of people concerned at the threat to out-of-hours GP services at the Vale of Leven Hospital.

More than 800 concerned residents attended meetings in Alexandria and Helensburgh.

Ms Baillie said: “Earlier in the summer I helped to organise two jam-packed public meetings in Helensburgh and Alexandria where over 800 local people turned out to support the Vale of Leven Hospital.

“One of the suggestions from members of the public at these meetings was a rally at the Scottish Parliament to make sure our voice is heard loudly and clearly.

“This demonstration will send a clear message to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and the Scottish Government that the people of Dumbarton, Vale of Leven, Helensburgh and Lomond are united behind protecting staff and services at our local hospital.”

Every seat on the bus taking protesters to Edinburgh was snapped up within days.

Jim Moohan, chairman of Hospitalwatch, said: “We will be sending a strong message to MSPs and ministers: no more cuts at the Vale of Leven Hospital and bring back our services.

“With vital local services like out of hours still under review, the Hospitalwatch campaign will continue to keep the pressure on the health board to stop the cuts. This is an extremely important demonstration.”

The rally has been organised despite a commitment from health board chairman John Brown and chief executive Jane Grant that both the out-of-hours GP service and the hospital as a whole are “safe and have a long term future”.

That commitment followed crunch talks with a Hospitalwatch delegation at Gartnavel Hospital in August and saw Mr Brown promise that the Vale's future was “guaranteed”.

The cost of transport to Thursday's rally is being met by an anonymous donor from Helensburgh.

The demonstration will be the campaigners' second trip to Holyrood this summer: in June Hospitalwatch members travelled to the Parliament to present a bedsheet signed by 5,000 people during the course of a 24-hour vigil outside the Vale, but left angry after neither health secretary Shona Robison nor junior ministers were able to meet them in person.