Call made for Health Minister to visit Paisley's RAH as a "priority"

A Paisley politician has hit out at Health Minister Humza Yousaf over his failure to visit the under-pressure Royal Alexandra Hospital.The Scottish Government health supremo pledged last November that he would visit the Corsebar Road facility to hear firsthand the concerns of workers.It came after Unison reps at the RAH highlighted a string of concerns, including a "chronic" shortage of staff.Paisley-based MSP Neil Bibby wrote to the SNP's Mr Yousaf after Unison reps Barbara Steel and Margaret Duffy went to him to flag up their worries .Don't miss the latest headlines from around Renfrewshire.

Sign up to our newsletters here.But he pressed him for answers during a parliamentary showdown in November after he failed to receive any reply to correspondence with the Health supremo.Instead, Mr Yousaf vowed to visit the RAH to speak to staff leaders first hand in the wake of the women's claims that frontline workers at the site were "burning out" and pleaded with GPs to see more patients in a bid to keep desperate residents from turning up at the hospital's buckling A&E department.But Mr Yousaf has yet to confirm when he will go to the RAH as a further evidence that the hospital is facing extreme pressures continues to emerge.Neil, Labour list MSP for the West of Scotland, told the Express: "It has been over two months since the Health Secretary pledged in Parliament to meet RAH staff and hear their concerns about the crisis in the NHS but still there has been no meeting."To act on the concerns of staff and patients, Humza Yousaf must first listen to them.

He has to understand the pressures frontline workers are facing."He added: "There is still time for the Health Secretary to meet RAH workers and I urge him to do so as a