Maree Todd keen to see strengthening of Caithness maternity service
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Maree Todd says she is keen to see a strengthening of the maternity service in Caithness, arguing that midwife-led care should be seen as "the gold standard".
She is also pushing for more healthcare needs to be met within the county where it is safe to do so.
Ms Todd was speaking after a meeting with Highland councillor Jan McEwan, who had pressed the SNP MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross on local maternity provision.
The consultant-led maternity unit at Caithness General Hospital was downgraded in 2016 to a midwife-led facility and the vast majority of local women now give birth at Raigmore in Inverness.
Only eight mothers gave birth in the community midwifery unit (CMU) at Wick during 2022, the last year for which figures are available, about four per cent of the total for Caithness mums. The number of Caithness women giving birth at Raigmore was 202.
Councillor McEwan said after meeting the MSP: "I asked her what she was going to do about the maternity service in Caithness and she said she couldn’t overturn a clinical decision. Does she not realise that these decisions can be overturned?
"I believe it to be against our human rights to expect Caithness folk to travel to Raigmore for maternity or other medical appointments that could be done easily in Caithness."
Ms Todd responded: “It is not for politicians, however well informed they are, to make clinical decisions when all of the doctors, all of the health professionals involved, are advising against that course of action. You really are well advised to take their expert advice.
“I would expect Councillor McEwan to understand that.
“I met with NHS Highland last week and we discussed Caithness maternity services, as we always do. I hear there is new midwifery leadership in NHS Highland and I'm hopeful that this will strengthen the service so that families will be confident about giving birth in Caithness."
Ms Todd said she was aware that in Oban – also part of the NHS Highland region – a "far higher proportion" of babies are born locally. In November, she was told by the health board that Oban has an average of 20 CMU births a year.
"They've got all the same challenges, all the same distances, but they've got a much higher proportion of babies being born there where it's appropriate for them to be born in a midwife-led unit," Ms Todd said.
"That's one thing that I am very keen for Caithness to work towards – strengthening that service.
“I think a lot of it is about confidence in the service. We need to be quite careful about how the service is presented.
"It's not a second-class service. Midwife-led care is the gold standard.
“The other thing that I discussed with NHS Highland was services that are available in Caithness, particularly those that aren't available elsewhere.
“One of the really interesting things they were talking about, for example, were eye injections. You can get them at Caithness General – everyone else in the Highlands has to travel to Raigmore to get them, but people who need eye injections in Caithness can access them in Caithness.
“What I want to do is push for even more devolution of services. Where it's safe, where they can deliver it in Caithness, I want it to happen in Caithness."
She added that she meets regularly with Caithness Health Action Team (CHAT) and North Highland Women’s Wellbeing Hub.
CHAT has been calling for the so-called Orkney model – a midwife-led unit backed up by consultants – to be replicated in Caithness. Around 80 per cent of Orkney mothers give birth in their local area.
