The Greenock Telegraph has taken its fight against the proposed downgrading of a local hospital to the health bosses charged with deciding its future.

The newspaper has been fighting the cuts since plans to withdraw accident and emergency and major surgery services from the Inverclyde Royal Hospital were announced in June.

And after a high-profile campaign, editor Martin Biddle has now handed the paper’s Fight the Cuts petition – with a record 56,642 names – to health board officials at NHS Argyll and Clyde’s headquarters in Paisley.

Martin said he would have preferred to hand over the petition to First Minister Jack McConnell – as had been planned for earlier this month – but this had been postponed until November, after the consultation deadline.

He said: “I was concerned the thousands of people who signed our petition would not be counted because technically the petition would not have been registered. Their voices would have gone unheard.

“Now the board has officially received the petition, which means it cannot be ignored. When I meet the First Minister I will press home how people power drove the Tele’s campaign.”

Greenock’s MP, MSP and Provost have all backed the Telegraph campaign, and as well as distributing petitions and writing human interest stories to drive home the issues, journalists have been involved in organising and supporting protest marches and meetings.

As well as the Telegraph’s petition, more than 7,000 other contributions have arrived at NHS Argyll and Clyde.

Managers will go through the submissions before preparing a report for a board meeting on November 8.

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