FEARS have been raised that Inverclyde Royal is part of a secret plan that would see Inverclyde lose its hospital.

It has been claimed that SNP Greenock and Inverclyde MSP Stuart McMillan has publicly stated at a series of community meetings that the IRH ‘may not survive longer than 10 to 15 years’.

The claim was not denied by Mr McMillan or NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, when approached directly by the Telegraph.

The health board responded by only saying specialist treatment may be provided by ‘regional or national teams’.

Now Labour are calling on Mr McMillan to ensure that any replacement for IRH would still have an accident and emergency department.

Labour’s Siobhan McCready, who lost this year’s Scottish Parliament election to Mr McMillan, said he accused her of scaremongering when she raised concerns about potential threats to the sustainability of IRH during the campaign.

She said today that people have been reporting back to her that Mr McMillan highlighted a limited future for the hospital at community meetings.

The issue has been raised following the health board’s decision to launch a public consultation over closing the IRH birthing unit.

Mrs McCready, a member of Labour’s Greenock and Inverclyde executive committee, said: “The impression was given during the election campaign that I was lying about threats to IRH services. I received messages from people threatening all sorts if I didn’t stop talking about this, and couldn’t walk through the town without abuse.”

She continued: “It gives me no satisfaction at all to have been proven right. I wish the threats to local services weren’t real, but they are. Many hospital workers have expressed their worries about it to me.

“NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde have to make £69 million cuts, and the IRH has a repair bill of around £80m that is rising every year. Hospital staff fear that the health board won’t spend that amount of money on it, which would mean the hospital doesn’t have a viable future.

“We don’t want a replacement of a small cottage hospital that would have to refer people to Paisley or Glasgow. We need a general hospital with enough consultants to ensure there would be a working accident and emergency department.

“With the acknowledgement that the IRH faces a lifespan of 10 or so years, will Stuart now publicly commit to ensuring a like-for-like replacement that includes retaining an accident and emergency department?

“We need an assurance we will retain a fully-functioning hospital delivering key services and retaining jobs in Inverclyde.”

The Tele put Mrs McCready’s statement to the health board, who responded that local services would be delivered ‘where possible’ —but did not dispute that IRH’s future could be in doubt.

A spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government has published a National Clinical Strategy for Scotland which gives a blueprint for planning future services. This recommends local services where possible.”

She added: “In the case of hospital care, to achieve the best possible health outcomes, specialist treatment may be provided by regional or national teams who perform complex operations more frequently.

“Like all other boards, we will continue to develop services in line with this, with the vast majority of hospital services continuing to be provided locally.”

Responding to Mrs McCready’s comments, Mr McMillan did not deny the claim about telling meetings that IRH could close in 10 to 15 years, but said the SNP Scottish Government has increased the NHS budget to £13 billion this year and is committed to ensuring that the NHS revenue budget rises by £500 million more than inflation by the end of this Parliament.

He said: “This means that it will increase by almost £2 billion in total. The current NHS budget is the highest it has ever been.

“Further, no SNP councillor, MSP, MP or government minister has made any discussion on the services currently under threat. The Cabinet Secretary for Health denounced these proposals within 24 hours of them being made public.

“I will again reiterate that I will vigorously oppose any attempts to streamline services at the IRH. I have a record of campaigning to save maternity services at the IRH, and I have the same opinions now.”