'Insult' to Caithness women over maternity unit assurance
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A move by NHS Highland to reassure campaigners in Caithness over the future of the county's community midwifery unit has been described as an insult.
Concerns were raised that further centralisation was taking place when a £9 million plan to increase capacity at Raigmore Hosital's maternity unit in Inverness emerged last week.
Caithness Health Action Team branded the move "unacceptable" if plans were being progressed for more mothers from the far north to give birth in the Highland capital.
The group's chairman, Ron Gunn, said it was a real worry and suggested it could lead to the Caithness unit's ultimate closure.
But NHS Highland said it was "fully committed" to the CMU at Caithness General Hospital, where only eight babies were born during the whole of 2022.
A spokesperson said: "The CMU is now fully established with care being provided locally for women throughout the whole pregnancy journey.
"We continue to work to optimise care journeys for mothers and families as locally as possible across Highland and Argyll and Bute."
More than 90 per cent of pregnant women from Caithness have to travel down the A9 to give birth at Raigmore, with 202 Caithness births taking place in Inverness last year.
Mr Gunn, who is a Lib Dem Highland councillor for the Thurso and Northwest Caithness ward, pointed out that many women's health services also require people to travel the 100-mile-plus journey to Inverness.
He hit out at the latest response from NHS Highland, saying: "I don't get a lot of reassurance from this response and wonder if the author is fully aware of the circumstances.
"They say the CMU is now fully established with care being provided locally for women throughout the whole pregnancy journey.
"I'm afraid it is a bit of an insult for NHS Highland to say that.
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"Since the CMU opened it has played a big part in the north's mums-to-be pregnancy journey but last year, only eight out of the 210 Caithness mums completed their journey in the CMU.
"Because of the maternity model NHS Highland have in Caithness, year after year, over 90 per cent of mums have to endure a stressful two-and-a-half-hour road journey down the A9, many in their own vehicles, in all weather conditions, to complete their pregnancy journey and give birth in an unfamiliar hospital location with midwives and staff they might never had met.
"The actual birth is one of the most important and joyous parts of the pregnancy journey and to do that over 100 miles away from the mothers' loved ones is no way as local as possible."
Mr Gunn called for an independent inquiry to take place into health services provided to women in Caithness.
He added: "Our annual birth rate is rising but the number giving birth in Caithness is dropping. Does 'the CMU is now fully established' mean that it is now acceptable that only four per cent of Caithness mothers are expected to give birth in the CMU?
"We have been told that 25 to 30 per cent of mothers should be able to give birth safely in a CMU. If Caithness adopted the 'Orkney model' over 80 per cent of mums would be able to give birth in the CMU.
"That is why we are asking for an independent inquiry into maternity and women's health services in Caithness."
