MSP Jackie Baillie has expressed her disappointment at West Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership’s ‘missed opportunity’ to promote the Vale of Leven Hospital.

Dumbarton and the Vale of Leven has no representation on the Clydebank-dominated HSCP.

Last month’s HSCP meeting discussed plans to review Minor Injuries Services in West Glasgow which will affect residents in Clydebank.

The two new options on the table were reopening the unit at Yorkhill which was closed last year or providing the service at Gartnavel.

The HSCP was also asked to consider a third option of keeping the status quo by maintaining the service at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital on the south side and Stobhill Hospital in the north-east of the city.

Bailie Denis Agnew expressed concerns over transport, saying “it’s easier to get to Stobhill from Clydebank than it is to get to the Queen Elizabeth.”

However, the Vale of Leven Hospital was not even mentioned as an option in the report or discussed at the meeting.

Ms Jackie Baillie said that extending the catchment area of the minor injuries unit at the Vale of Leven Hospital to cover Clydebank makes ‘perfect sense’.

She said that doing so would protect access to services for all residents in West Dunbartonshire and increase patient numbers at the hospital.

She said: "This was a missed opportunity to promote the Vale of Leven Hospital.

"West Dunbartonshire already has a fantastic minor injuries unit at the Vale of Leven which deals with a wide range of non-life threatening emergencies including sprains, burns and simple fractures. Unlike most minor injury services in Glasgow, the Vale can also treat children over the age of one.

"It makes perfect sense to extend the Vale’s catchment area to cover patients in Clydebank. "