Fears for mums-to-be in Caithness after snow drifts cause A9 chaos
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"We cannot go into another winter in the same situation." That was the message after a day of travel chaos saw the A9 blocked and flights grounded on Wednesday.
Health care campaigners in the far north said the situation could have been deadly if an emergency had arisen, especially for pregnant mums in Caithness.
The consultant-led maternity unit at Caithness General Hospital in Wick was downgraded in 2016 to a midwife-led facility and most women in the far north now give birth at Raigmore Hospital, with many mums-to-be told to go to Inverness by car.
On Wednesday, snow drifts at Berriedale saw the trunk road south blocked, with lorries, vans and cars all struggling to cope with the conditions. It led to hours of delays, while the airport at Wick was also closed for a few hours due to the weather, meaning emergency flights would not have been able to take off.
Kirsteen Campbell, chair of the North Highland Women's Wellness Hub (NHWWH), said she dreads something happening when the road is blocked.
"Emergencies are my biggest fear," she said. "Yes, they can be rare but they do happen. Delays could result in loss of fertility or death.
"Without a doubt, staff at Caithness General will do everything they possibly can but gynaecology is a specialist skill set and without that it could have life-changing outcomes.
"Wednesday really showed what the weather can do – the airport was closed for a period of time, the A9 was incredibly poor with snow drifting and the alternative route around Tongue was closed with snow too. Then we had thunder and lightning again which means an aircraft cannot fly.
"It highlighted everything we have been saying. To drive in those conditions is a massive responsibility, whether it's a loved one or an ambulance crew. It is putting a lot of lives at unnecessary risk."
NHWWH members along with Caithness Health Action Team (CHAT) met Scotland's health minister Humza Yousaf in the summer to discuss the demand for more women's health services in the far north.
CHAT chairman Ron Gunn agreed that change was needed after the state of the road this week.
He said: "They really have to look at how safe it is travelling down the A9. They always said that they downgraded the maternity unit [at Caithness General] because it wasn't safe, but the model we have now is far from safe.
"The A9 is not safe, whether it's road accidents or snow or whatever, and Wednesday highlighted it exactly. People think of the helicopter as a back up, but in extreme conditions it's not."
Mr Gunn said he was optimistic that the Scottish Government was serious about making changes to maternity care at the Wick hospital, however, with a midwife-led option similar to that in Orkney the preferred solution.
"Humza said he was quite interested in the Orkney model, so that's good," he stated. "When we met him a few months back we put it to him, and he was going to see the Orkney unit the next day, and since then he seems to have taken that idea as a possibility.
"We met Maree Todd just a couple of weeks ago and she was saying she was interested in the Orkney model as well. She felt that Caithness should have around 25 to 30 per cent of mothers giving birth here, which is a lot better than the less than 10 per cent that we have at the moment.
"We're optimistic, it's the first time that somebody in that sort of position has really listened to us."
Ms Campbell said there was a need to see a return to 24/7 gynaecology at Caithness General.
"I strongly believe this will also strengthen the maternity unit," she said. "It fits in with the Orkney model. Most women at some time in their lives will need to use gynaecology services – this will massively help the backlog in the Highland area and take a huge amount of pressure out of Raigmore.
"The number of group members we have shows the demand in the area. We cannot go into another winter in the same situation."
NHS Highland is currently undertaking a review into a range of services in the area.
Mr Yousaf last week told a BBC Alba documentary: “I think it’s a very reasonable argument to make from the campaigners in Caithness that we should explore the Orkney model, that networked model as it’s often called, and I don’t want to pre-empt the review that’s being undertaken.”
