THERE’S confusion this week over the future of the out-of-hours GP service at the Vale of Leven Hospital after a claim from the SNP that a controversial cuts proposal had been scrapped.

The leader of West Dunbartonshire Council, SNP councillor Jonathan McColl, announced this week that he had been given assurances that a report on the service’s future has been dumped.

But NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde says its review of the service across the health board area is still ongoing.

A discussion document proposing the closure of the service at the Vale on weekday evenings prompted more than 700 people to attend public meetings in Helensburgh and Alexandria to voice their concerns.

Cllr McColl made his announcement in a news release on Monday after meeting the health board’s chairman, John Brown, and chief executive Jane Grant.

He said in a statement: “This is an issue I’ve been working on since the spring and I’m delighted to have received this reassurance that the service is no longer under threat.

“Having secured the long term future of the service, we have also ensured that local GPs will be invited to meet with the chair and other decision makers at the board in order to resolve the current short term issues.”

But a health board spokesman told the Advertiser: “The review is still ongoing.

“Following the publication of the national review by Sir Lewis Ritchie, NHSGGC and local HSCPs are taking forward our own work to explore how the service might be made more sustainable for all our local communities in line with the national review.

“At the same time we continue to talk with GPs and evaluate how we can best use the services of the existing cohort of GPs who agree to work out of hours. We have also increased the pay rates over the summer months to encourage more GPs to volunteer to work out of hours.

“The board remains totally committed to providing a high quality out of hours service to all communities across Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

“This commitment clearly extends to the population currently served by the Vale GP out-of-hours service.”

Meanwhile, the board’s chairman has agreed to meet representatives of the Hospitalwatch campaign group to discuss their concerns over the future of the Vale of Leven Hospital as a whole.