Jeane Freeman, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, has sent a letter to Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, and other elected representatives, regarding the reopening of the Vale of Leven’s out of hours department.

Within the letter, Jeane Freeman acknowledges that this positive change is the result of a number of discussions between the health board and local GPs. These were the discussions that Jackie Baillie asked Jeane Freeman to facilitate when she was invited to the Vale of Leven hospital, given the repeated problems with covering the out of hours service.

Jackie Baillie MSP said:

“The full reopening of the Vale’s out of hours service could not have been achieved without the meetings that took place between myself, the Cabinet Secretary for Health, and Greater Glasgow and Clyde and most importantly of all, our local GPs.

“Finally – after almost two years of patchy access to out of hours provision, this service will begin running again at full capacity. This comes after years of campaigning by myself, local people and groups such as HospitalWatch – together, we fought to protect and reopen this service.

“Huge thanks must go to our local GPs for making this reopening possible. We owe them a debt of gratitude for putting the interests of local people first.

“Now more than ever, local people need easy access to vital health services.”