Dr Gray's Hospital in temporary link-up to cut waiting times for cancer patients

THE first cancer patients were seen at Dr Gray’s Hospital this week in a temporary initiative to support urological cancer care in the north.

As part of a Scottish Government funded link-up, the Elgin hospital has joined with Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Raigmore Hospital in Inverness in a bid to drive down waiting times for urology patients.

The day patients will be seen in Ward 3 – the hospital's maternity ward – on Wednesdays and Thursdays each week until the end of March.

The provision of enhanced diagnostic support in Elgin will have a significant positive impact on cancer care, NHS Grampian says, and is part of a wider Covid recovery plan.

Hospital management responded to concerns from local maternity campaigners, who raised questions over the use of Ward 3 and sought assurances that it will be returned to its original use.

On a wider level, local Keep MUM campaigners and politicians are calling for clarity on the future return to a consultant-led service at Elgin, after the unit was downgraded to a midwife-led service in 2018.

Alasdair Pattinson, general manager of Dr Gray’s, insisted the temporary measure was not part of a plan to further change the maternity model at the hospital.

NHS Grampian said the arrangement would not adversely impact on Dr Gray’s capacity to provide other services, which will continue without interruption.

Dr Gray’s began seeing urology day case patients on Wednesday, February 17, who would otherwise have their diagnostic procedure at Raigmore. They aim to see up to eight patients, both from Highland and Grampian, each day.

Mr Pattinson said: "This initiative is going to see us supporting NHS Highland with urology patients coming to Gray's for their day-case procedures and diagnostic interventions to determine cancer diagnosis and treatment plans in a timely fashion.

"Although we have managed to maintain good access for cancer diagnostic services, winter does place a lot of pressure on the system from a bed capacity point of view.

"We at Dr Gray's have got some unused capacity.

"There are two things happening at the moment in Ward 3. One is that we are going through a process of refurbishing the ward. What that is doing is upgrading our birthing facilities and introducing a new birthing pool. That work will take us to around May.

"It is not going to reduce, over the long-term, the capacity that we have in Ward 3. There will be one or two of those spaces temporarily out of use whilst they are being upgraded. Based on the number of births that are coming through the hospital at the moment we can cope with that.

"There is not going to be any disadvantage and it doesn't mean that anyone will have to go anywhere else if they can suitably birth at Dr Gray's.

"Secondly, because of the model that we're currently using in maternity services at Dr Gray's, and the capacity we currently have in Ward 3, we can use that capacity differently. The numbers of births that are coming through mean we still have empty beds in Ward 3 but the rest of the hospital is actually jammed with managing unscheduled activity.

"We can't put some of that unscheduled activity into Ward 3 because of the nature of what happens in Ward 3. But the urology activity, because it's day cases, means we can use that space.

"We've managed to segregate the ward so that there's a maternity end and a day-case end on a temporary basis, even while the refurbishment work is going on."

Mr Pattinson added: "We will return to having four birthing rooms. They will all have been refurbished and modernised, and be much more fit for purpose.

"This is not part of a plan to further change the maternity model at Dr Gray's.

"It is a temporary measure in order to support the wider health needs of the north of Scotland and it will not influence what we do with maternity services beyond its temporary phase.

"For Dr Gray's it's a great thing to be able to offer something to the wider community and helps put us on the map as being a viable and useful asset across the north."

Meanwhile, Mr Pattinson acknowledged health care challenges thrown up by the wintry weather over last week, which saw the A96 closed overnight on Saturday, and paid tribute to staff who had made considerable efforts to get to work.

He said: "From a severe weather planning point of view, we always have contingency plans in place to manage services and we work with our partners to try and ensure that patients need to get to where they need to get to.

"If we can't get to Aberdeen then Raigmore Hospital is another partner hospital for certain types of care. So if there are patients with a need for critical care or if there was a mum who was labouring and we couldn't safely deliver them at Dr Gray's then Raigmore would be the place we can go to."

He thanked the Scottish Ambulance Service and COTAG 4x4 Response for their support over the weekend, both in transporting patients and helping staff get to and from work.