Caithness campaigner fears ‘unacceptable’ maternity shift to Inverness

A £9 milllion investment in maternity services at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness has been described as a big worry for women and mothers in Caithness.

Ron Gunn, chairman of Caithness Health Action Team (CHAT) and a Lib Dem Highland councillor for Thurso and Northwest Caithness, is concerned the investment suggests further centralisation.

He is worried that the move could lead to the closure of the Community Midwifery Unit at Caithness General Hospital, and called the direction of travel “unacceptable”.

Maternity services at the Wick hospital were downgraded on safety grounds in 2016, with more mums-to-be forced to travel to Inverness. Last year just eight mums gave birth at the CMU in Caithness, while 202 had to travel to Raigmore.

Mr Gunn said: “If they are spending that money in Inverness with extra staffing and extra beds, it is a worry.

“I know they are struggling to get people up in Caithness to staff the unit, and will it be a case of them saying, ‘sorry, everyone goes to Inverness’?

“Which is really unacceptable in this day and age.

“It is a worry that they seem to be centralising it and we know all the dangers involved in having to go down there.”

The NHS Highland plans for a major expansion in maternity and neonatal care services at the Highlands’ flagship hospital claim to enable more women from Moray and Caithness to give birth in Inverness.

The £5 million cost for new and improved buildings would then necessitate another £3.8 million being spent on 56 new staff, including doctors, consultants, nurses, midwives and other specialists.

NHS Highland’s planning application details how the maternity department would be re-shaped and upgraded, with a brand new two-storey extension and plant room on the roof. There would also be alterations to the road layout and turning area.

Asked if there were any positives for Caithness mothers, Mr Gunn said: “If mothers are being forced to go to Inverness, it should make their experiences a bit better – that would be about the only positive – once they get there, of course.

“It’s not something that we would want, we would far rather them concentrating on trying to get more births in Caithness.

“They just seem to be centralising it all to Raigmore.”

The ward would remain operational throughout the building and refurbishment work, led by the firm Kier Construction.

The need to redesign Raigmore’s maternity unit came as elements of maternity care were transferred from Caithness General Hospital in 2016 and from Moray in 2018.

That led to a review of the hospital’s maternity and special care baby capacity from late 2018.

A networked model of care with Raigmore Hospital in Inverness will see Moray women offered a choice of place of birth from early 2025, once refurbishment work has concluded.

An internal review into Caithness health services more widely is currently taking place.

Planning documents now before officials feature a design and access statement for the new unit, with artists’ impressions of how it would look.

The design statement reads: “The project is to develop a facility that will provide additional capacity and a modern, safe and compliant environment to deliver maternity services for the next 10-plus years.”

Highlands and Islands Conservative MSP Edward Mountain has recently launched a campaign to create a new hospital to serve the whole of the Highlands.

He said: “I am delighted to see plans going in for the upgrade of the maternity unit at Raigmore Hospital. This is desperately needed because even if the government signed off today on the new hospital we desperately need, it will probably take more than 10 years to deliver it.”

Mr Gunn welcomed the proposal for a new Highland-wide hospital, but said local services were vital to mothers and women in Caithness.

“The birthrate – the actual number of mothers from Caithness giving birth – has actually gone up, but the numbers giving birth in Caithness have gone down,” he said.

“The way managers look at it, they say it’s difficult to keep it open. But it is a worry for Caithness and the mothers that they seem to be concentrating on expanding what they are doing at Raigmore, probably at the cost of the CMU.”

NHS Highland has been invited to comment.