NE FIFE PATIENTS LET DOWN BY SNP

2.40.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 2nd Sep 2008

North East Fife patients have been let down again by the SNP Government, who promise one thing and deliver another, according to local MSP Iain Smith.

Condemning the announcement that car-parking charges at Ninewells Hospital will remain, when they are being scrapped at other hospitals, Iain Smith said, "Many of my constituents have no choice but to go to Ninewells for vital treatment, and have no alternative but to go by car as suitable public transport is not available.

"The Health Secretary says 'It's simply not fair to expect patients or visitors to have to pay when they come to hospital' and 'a tax on health', but my constituents will still have to pay. What is not fair is that patients from North East Fife will have to pay to park whilst patients from elsewhere in Scotland will not.

"The Government's actions do not match their rhetoric, and it is my constituents who will suffer. North East Fife has again been let down by this SNP Government," Iain Smith concluded.

ENDS