Greens call for strategy to secure key services The battle to tackle Glasgow’s major health problems is being hindered by a funding crisis in community projects that deliver unique services, Green MSP will argue in a parliamentary debate today (1, 2).

 

Greens will press Health Minister Andy Kerr for a national strategy on community health projects to ensure that they are allocated adequate and secure funding. The warning follows the chief medical officer Dr Andrew Burns’ annual report released on Monday, which confirmed that alcohol and obesity remain the top public health concerns and that, “people living in deprived areas have a significantly shorter life expectancy than those in more affluent areas”.

 

As well as tackling immediate health needs, community health projects address underlying causes of health inequalities that conventional health services are not equipped to challenge. Glasgow Greens MSP Patrick Harvie has been contacted by staff concerned that projects were either going to fold, or that they were not operating in the way that they should due to insecure funding. Various projects in Glasgow are cash-strapped but are too scared to speak out for fear of jeopardising future funding.

 

NHS Greater Glasgow Health Board allocates funds on an annual basis only, leading to short-termism and job insecurity - despite the city’s poor health record and low life expectancy. Patrick Harvie,Green Glasgow MSP,said,“Funding duties are being passed form pillar to post leaving no-one in charge and no-one willing to take responsibility. Severa Glasgow cash-strapped projects are under threat or have gone under already and obesity and alcohol are still major health problems in Glasgow - ministers need to do more to make sure that they are being tackled. “Community health projects are efficient and effective.

 

They tailor services and can really reach those in need, yet they are being left to function on shoe-string budgets lurching from one financial crisis to another. It’s time the Executive coughed up the cash so that both taxpayers and those who use the projects really benefit. “A national strategy on community health would give the sector the standing it deserves - until there is a clear requirement for local authorities and health boards to support and protect the sector, they will always be bottom of the list when funds are being allocated.”

 

Glasgow projects that have already closed after their funding was slashed include the Maryhill Community Health Project, which focussed on helping new mums, and North Glasgow Community Health Project, which provided services such as an ora health project. Four other Glasgow projects have had funding cuts so severe that they are going to be forced to merge. These are:

 

1. East End Health Action: funding cut,no longer viable as a stand alone project.

2. Greater Easterhouse Community Health Project: will merge with EEHA but can no longer afford to employ development workers.

3. Healthy Castlemilk: funding cut,so not viable as a stand alone project.

4. SEAL: Plan is to merge it with Healthy Castlemilk but at the moment no capacity between them to form a proposal.