Health in Forres and Moray: Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Rhoda Grant calls for immediate response from SNP health minister Humza Yousaf to letter written by senior maternity staff at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
AN MSP has called for an immediate response following the publication of an open letter which criticises the recent Moray maternity services review.
The review of Dr Gray's Hospital in Elgin was commissioned by the Scottish Government.
Its report, published in December, recommended that more pregnant women from Moray should give birth at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, rather than face the longer journey to Aberdeen.
However in a letter to Humza Yousaf, the Health Secretary, a total of 18 senior obstetricians and midwives at Raigmore have criticised the review's findings as both "unworkable" and "unsafe".
In their letter they claim they were never consulted by the review's authors about whether their hospital could deal with extra births from Moray.
They add that they neither have the staff nor the facilities to do so.
Rhoda Grant, whose Highland and Islands ward includes both hospitals, says she has serious misgivings about Raigmore’s ability to cope, especially as the Inverness' maternity unit already deals with women from Caithness who are deemed at serious risk.
The Labour MSP is now calling on Mr Yousaf to provide an urgent response to the clinicians' letter.
Mrs Grant said: "For 18 senior clinicians at Raigmore maternity unit to say they were never consulted on plans to send Moray women to Raigmore is a shocking indictment of the review process.
"The Health Secretary must immediately explain how he and his predecessor allowed this to happen, and how it impacts on the report's recommendations.
"The open letter confirms what most of us already know – that Raigmore does not have capacity to take on large numbers of women from a neighbouring health board.
"The only viable solution is to reinstate consultant maternity services at Dr Gray's.
"I will continue to work alongside Keep MUM to give women in Moray the maternity services they so urgently need."
The letter was originally sent in private to Mr Yousaf's office on December 10.
However, after receiving no response, the medics decided this week to make it public.
Maternity services at Dr Gray's were downgraded in July 2018 due to a lack of staff.
Since then about 80% of woman from Moray have had to travel to Aberdeen to give birth.
Related article: 'Enormous concerns' over maternity services
