Protect Local NHS Services

As an amendment to motion S5M-01677 in the name of Anas Sarwar on Protect Local NHS Services, leave out from “the widespread public concern” to end and insert "that no decisions have been made in respect of current service change proposals from NHS boards; welcomes the Scottish Government’s record of protecting local services, including saving the A&E departments in Monklands and Ayr, ending a decade of damaging uncertainty in 2009 by approving the Vision for the Vale of Leven Hospital, and securing inpatient paediatric services at St John’s Hospital in line with the independent report from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health; recognises that there is an established process around service change in the NHS, and that the decision about whether a particular service change is deemed major is one that is taken in consultation with the independent Scottish Health Council, which was established in statute in 2005 to support and advise NHS boards and to quality-assure the public involvement process; endorses the National Clinical Strategy, which was published in February 2016, with its aim to provide more care where people need it and with as much care as possible delivered locally, and remains committed to maintaining and improving safe and effective local services across Scotland.”