Letters / Too big for his green wellies?
So, Dr Alex Armitage, the Green candidate in the forthcoming Scottish parliamentary election, is ‘disappointed’.
What’s disappointed him, apparently, is that the decision about a potential new ‘walk-in’ GP surgery for Shetland is being taken nationally, not locally.
Hang on a minute, Alex: the local arm of the National Health Service is your employer, NHS Shetland, a ‘partner’ with Shetland Islands Council in the ‘Integrated Joint Board’ (IJB) that’s responsible for providing us with local health and social care services.
And who has a great deal of influence in that organisation? None other than the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, our ‘non-political’ council leader, Emma Macdonald.
Emma has a badge saying she’s the best council leader in Scotland (I leave that to the reader to judge…) so the question is what has she been doing about sorting out the Lerwick Health Centre and ensuring that townsfolk (and those nearby) who want to see a doctor, can do so when they want?
Why is Alex attacking the SNP for actually doing something about this problem, while giving the Lib Dem candidate a free pass? Could it be that he hopes she wins because he doesn’t agree with his own party’s policy on independence? Surely not!
Alex adds: “I disagree that decisions about our healthcare systems should be made in a centralised, top-down manner but that’s not the point here.”
Actually, it is precisely the point. The reason we need a walk-in GP centre is that the local organisation has failed to deliver. The ‘N’ in NHS stands for National, after all. And the SNP Government provides over £90 million a year for health in Shetland.
Alex further accuses the SNP candidate, Hannah Mary Goodlad, of being “disingenuous” because she’s campaigned in favour of the new GP centre. He alleged that the locations of all the new walk-in centres have been decided already but were being kept secret for some sinister electoral reason.
Well, if he knows that he must have privileged access to information that the rest of us do not. He says Hannah Mary Goodlad has “claim[ed] personal credit for the work and ideas of others”.
If anyone is being ‘disingenuous’ here, I think it is Dr Armitage. It is clear to all what Hannah Mary has achieved to date, and her potential, given the opportunity by the people of Shetland.
Perhaps Dr Armitage, whose party is very much a minority at Holyrood, is getting a little too big for his green wellies?
Chris Bain
Levenwick
