THE threat to the GP out-of-hours service at the Vale of Leven Hospital is putting the future of the entire facility at risk, campaigners have warned.

Around 450 people attended a public meeting at Helensburgh Parish Church on Monday to show their concern at a proposal by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to close the service on weekday evenings.

And the meeting – jointly organised by local MSP Jackie Baillie and the Hospitalwatch campaign group – heard repeated warnings that if the service is reduced, it could speed up the closure of the whole hospital.

Ms Baillie, Hospitalwatch chairman Jim Moohan and Helensburgh GP Brian McLachlan were all united in their view that the closure of the out-of-hours service could hasten the demise of the Vale.

Mr Moohan said: “The hospital is a shell of its former self. The out-of-hours service is being continually undermined by the health board.

“If we lose that support someone may decide it’s clinically unsafe and can’t survive as a hospital.

“We are near the cliff edge, and the board isn’t interested.”

If the proposal to cut the out-of-hours service – contained in a leaked health board discussion document – goes ahead, people in the Helensburgh and Lomond area would be faced with a round trip of up to 80 miles to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley to get access to a GP in the evenings.

And Dr McLachlan once again spoke of his fear that the proposal to cut the out-of-hours service at the Vale was an “unacceptable clinical risk”.

He said: “All the local GPs feel this will reduce access, widen health inequalities and is frankly dangerous.

“The out-of-hours service is a core service. It must be local and it must be accessible. It’s not an add-on. It’s not an irritating appendage. It’s not specialist, and as such it must be local.

“The RAH is not local. It’s not accessible. This impacts on our most vulnerable and isolated patient groups.

“Any reduction in the service will reduce access, increase inequalities, compromise patient care, compromise the ambulance service and destabilise the Vale.

“Make no mistake: moving the GP out-of-hours service to the RAH would be the final nail in the coffin of all local services at the Vale of Leven.

“The health board is tearing up the fabric of our NHS with barely a backwards glance.”

Ms Baillie pointed to the number of people attending the meeting – which was moved from the church’s small hall to the large hall, and then to the church itself, after 300 people went to a similar meeting in Alexandria last week – as evidence of the community’s united front on the issue.

She said: “I’m a patient person but I’m saying to you enough is absolutely enough. The turnout tonight tells me you think the same.

“It’s not rocket science. The GP out-of-hours service is one of the most basic services you should expect from your NHS.

“You need local access and that access must be at the Vale.

“The driver for this is not clinical safety. GPs say the proposal is clinically unsafe. The driver is money.”

Ms Baillie warned that with no more local, Scottish or UK elections on the horizon, people in Helensburgh and Lomond – and in Dumbarton and the Vale of Leven too – needed to keep shouting out about the future of the service and the hospital as a whole.

She added: “Every time there is an election, information is leaked to me, I put it in the public domain, and we’re told ‘nothing to see here’. Then we get past the election and it turns out every proposal I leaked is going to happen.

“This is a time of great uncertainty. The threat to the birthing unit hasn’t gone away. The medical assessment unit at the Vale is under threat. Clinics are being cancelled. You can see how fragile these services are.

“We need to be ever-vigilant. I fear this is the time they will come for our services.”

Members of the public at the meeting asked questions on a range of subjects, including the cost of the out-of-hours service, the possibility of legal action, lodging petitions online and at the Scottish Parliament, and whether the Royal Navy might have any input in view of its plans for a major expansion of HM Naval Base Clyde, which is expected to lead to a significant increase in the number of people living in the local area.

Maurice Corry, Conservative MSP for the West of Scotland and a Helensburgh resident, said: “We are trying to bring 2,200 personnel to this area from down south. We cannot do it if we cannot get the health service situation sorted. We cannot afford to have the out-of-hours service neglected.

“We need to increase this area’s population. When people are considering moving to an area they look at things like shopping, education provision, transport and health services. And if things like that ain’t there, they won’t come.”

Helensburgh councillor and Argyll and Bute Council leader Aileen Morton, who also attended Monday’s meeting, said the area’s councillors had given their unanimous backing in April to a call for the health board to consult fully with Argyll and Bute health chiefs before reaching any decision on the future of the out-of-hours GP service at the Vale.

Cllr Morton added: “I’ve used the out-of-hours service and other services at the Vale and also at the RAH. There really is no comparison in terms of the quality and accessibility of the service.

“I share the concerns already raised: any service under threat puts the future of the entire hospital under threat.”

Members of the public have been urged to write to their MSP, to Scotland’s health secretary and to local and national health chiefs expressing their concern at the health board’s proposal and its possible consequences.

And concerned residents could have the chance to show their support for the Vale and its services at a march in Edinburgh later this year – a suggestion made at the meeting by Ms Baillie which received an enthusiastic response.

In the meantime, people concerned about the threat to the out-of-hours service, and the potential knock-on threat to the Vale of Leven Hospital as a whole, can write directly to Ms Baillie at Jackie.Baillie.msp@parliament.scot or at The Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh EH99 1SP.

A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “We have already confirmed our commitment to the Vale of Leven Hospital.

“In fact, our chairman wrote to your paper personally earlier this year offering his re-assurance to your readers that the Vale of Leven Hospital does have a long term future.

“We have also previously stated that we understand the concerns of local people on the challenges of staffing not just the Vale of Leven GP out-of-hours service but all our out-of-hours services and are working hard to ensure this service is available.

“However, the reality is that the out-of-hours service across Greater Glasgow and Clyde – and indeed across Scotland – is facing significant challenges in finding enough GPs willing to staff the service.

“There are currently occasions when there are not enough GPs to cover all our eight centres and we have to move available GPs from site to site to ensure we provide the best service we can for patients.

“A review, being led by the health and social care partnerships, is currently considering how we can continue to provide an efficient, responsive GP service out-of-hours that is sustainable in the long term. This is being looked at as part of a wider discussion on how to enhance out-of-hours health and social care services for the people of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

“The recommendations from this review will be reported back to the six integrated joint boards and NHS GGC in due course. The review process will include public and patient engagement.”