Local MP Richard Arkless has said that the health board is simply not doing enough to deliver services to people living in the west of the region despite his repeated calls that they must change their approach.
Mr Arkless has written to Jeff Ace to express his frustration that once again, a patient receiving cancer treatment is being asked to travel to Dumfries for a simple procedure that has previously been carried out at the Galloway Hospital in Stranraer. Mr Arkless has suggested that as the message is failing to get through, the installation of maps on office walls would remind staff of the enormous distances ill and vulnerable people are being asked to travel for minor procedures that had previously been available in Stranraer.
Commenting, Mr Arkless said:
‘Once again a constituent has come to me for help after being told that a procedure that had previously been carried out in in the Galloway Hospital, is now only available at DGRI or in the patients home in Stranraer. The situation defies logic. If a procedure is available to a patient in their own home in Stranraer, then why is it not available at the Galloway Hospital?
‘For various reasons, my constituent does not want to receive the treatment at home – that should be her choice. She should not then have to be forced to travel all the way to DGRI – there should be another option and that option should be the Galloway Hospital which is fit for purpose and conveniently located.’
He added:
‘It is incredibly frustrating when access to care and services is made unnecessarily difficult for ill and vulnerable people for inconceivable reasons. I have written to Jeff Ace to ask him once again to consider how far people in the west are being asked to travel for cancer treatment. In an effort to keep distance at the forefront of practitioners minds, I have suggested maps be provided for office walls – I feel that there is a real lack of empathy for NHS users in the west of this region and its time things changed.’
