St John's Hospital Livingston could lose emergency dental service

Lothian Labour MSP Neil Findlay said he had been passed a consultation document, which was not publicly available, on the future provision of the service - and three out of the five options involved full or partial closure.

Speaking at First Minister’s Questions, he said: “That would leave West Lothian with no emergency dental service at our hospital.

“That follows the out-of-hours closures of the children’s ward and the recent threat to the out-of-hours general practitioner service.

“Why are we constantly having to fight proposals to remove services from St John’s hospital?”

He claimed the proposals were “yet more evidence” that workforce planning in the NHS was shambolic and was failing staff and patients.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney, standing in for Nicola Sturgeon who was attending the D-Day commemorations, pointed out the children’s ward had now re-opened and said there were a range of options on the out-of-hours dental service.

“If any of those were to be adopted, that would constitute a major service change, and there will be full and active involvement in consultation for all members of the public and of parliament.”

And he added: “I make clear to Mr Findlay that the Scottish Government believes that there is a very strong need for a wide range of services to be provided at St John’s Hospital.”

Almond Valley SNP MSP Angela Constance said progress was being made with the children’s ward and there was nearly £4 million worth of investment in A&E.

She said: “As the constituency MSP for St John’s Hospital I will always fight tooth and nail for local services and have made urgent representations to NHS Lothian to that effect. I was glad that the Deputy First Minister recognised the need for a wide range of services to be provided at St John’s hospital to support the growing population of West Lothian and I will be working to ensure our much loved local hospital goes from strength to strength.”

Professor Alison McCallum, director of public health and health policy at NHS Lothian, said: “We are undertaking a review of unscheduled dental care across all of NHS Lothian to ensure we deliver the safest and most effective service model possible, looking at a range of options based on available data and evidence.”