Moray maternity campaigners concerned by £9m NHS Highland plan

NHS Highland will today seek to agree a bid for almost £9 million from the Scottish Government to enable more women from Moray to give birth in Inverness.

The plan, if approved, would require investment of around £5 million in new and improved maternity and neonatal care infrastructure at the city’s Raigmore Hospital.

It would also entail "significant" spending – estimated at around £3.8 million – on the equivalent of an estimated 56 extra doctors, consultants, nurses, midwives and other specialist staff.

A business case being presented before the health board states the investment was "not currently possible" within existing NHS Highland budgets, although some of the extra staffing costs could be met in sharing agreements with NHS Grampian.

Services at Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin were controversially downgraded in 2018 due to staff shortages, forcing most expectant mothers to travel to Aberdeen.

Keep MUM, the campaign group which is fighting for a consultant-led service to be re-instated in Moray, has expressed deep concerns about the proposals that are being discussed today.

A spokesperson said: "The development in Inverness is needed in its own right, but it is not justified on account of the situation in Moray.

"Services should be designed around patient needs not shoehorned into what suits the two health boards.

"The costs of this development will exceed what it used to take to run the consultant-led maternity unit in Elgin.

"There is also a complete lack of consideration for continuity of care and making sure that there will be local access for maternity care. Why should a Moray baby, delivered in Inverness, have to go to Aberdeen for treatment of neonatal jaundice?

"The anxiety of Moray families appears to be of far less importance than proceeding with plans formulated by NHS Grampian and NHS Highland."