NICOLA Sturgeon has been accused of lying over the closure of a popular children’s ward.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie claimed the First Minister had lied in a TV election debate in 2016 about Ward 15 at Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital.
The First Minister accused him in return of being a “pathetic attention seeker”, earning both party leaders a reprimand from Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh.
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After the leak of a health board paper suggesting Ward 15 was under threat, Ms Sturgeon was asked in the TV debate by audience member Gordon Clark about its future.
She replied: “I will absolutely give a commitment that we will keep services as local as they need be. There’s no proposals to close that particular ward.”
However formal closure plans were later submitted to Health Secretary Shona Robison, who last week signed them off citing the persuasive clinical case for change.
Inpatient and day case paediatrics at Ward 15 will now end, with children cared for at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow instead, a 30 to 40 minute drive away.
At First Minister’s Questions, Mr Rennie said Ms Sturgeon was hiding behind clinical advice.
He said: “Doctors may have advised her to close the children’s ward at Paisley.
“They did not force her to lie in an election television debate. Is she not ashamed of blaming the doctors for her broken promise?”
Ms Sturgeon said: “It is important to listen to the doctors and the nurses, who probably know more than he does about how best to care for some of the sickest children in our society.
“Yes, we listened to the doctors; I am sorry if that upsets Willie Rennie, but I am not prepared to apologise for listening to doctors, who know best about how to treat sick children.”
Labour leader Richard Leonard asked Ms Sturgeon if she would apologise to Mr Clark, who was in the public gallery.
He said: “The First Minister needs to understand the depth of anger… This is not just about party politics - it is about her integrity. People feel betrayed, with good reason.
“Will the First Minister say why... the people of Paisley should ever trust her again?”
Ms Sturgeon reminded Mr Leonard that after the TV debate, a Labour MSP criticised her for not guaranteeing the ward’s future, yet Labour now claimed she had promised to save it.
She said: “As we have always done, we take decisions on the basis of best clinical evidence. These are never easy decisions, for any health secretary.”
After FMQs, Mr Clark, 57, a father-of-two autism worker at Renfrewshire Council, said Ms Sturgeon should be ashamed of her actions and apologise for lying.
He said: “I’m absolutely furious and I’m sure the people in Renfrewshire and beyond are absolutely furious for the First Minister to lie to them on such an important subject.
“She said there were no plans to close that ward. People in Renfrewshire and beyond were listening to her before the election.
“People in Renfrewshire and Paisley should be absolutely disgusted, not just with Nicola but with local SNP MSPs that were applauding in the chamber there."
He predicted the closure would create a “bottleneck” as children from Inverclyde, Renfrewshire, West Dunbartonshire and Argyll who would have gone to Ward 15 went to Glasgow instead.
He said: “This is about not putting all your eggs in one basket. We could have had two centres of excellence supporting each other. It’s a total disgrace.”
“The fact that [Ms Sturgeon] was prepared to lie for gain at the election, I think is totally disgusting.
The First Minister’s official spokesman said there had been no formal proposal from the health board to close the ward until around a year after the TV debate.