Save Our Surgeons

NORTH of Scotland Newspapers has launched a new campaign – Save Our Surgeons – to fight for the retention of 24/7 surgical cover at Caithness General Hospital in Wick.

It follows an announcement by NHS Highland in December to end the weekend and evening surgical service after two of the three resident consultant posts fell vacant.

In a U-turn, NHS Highland chairman Garry Coutts later revealed the emergency contingency plan was not implemented and the out-of-hours cover continued to operate. The health authority has, however, failed to offer a guarantee the hospital will have 24/7 on-site surgical cover in the future.

NHS Highland is now reviewing how it delivers its surgical service across the region and this could lead to more surgeons being based at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness with Highland-wide remits.

The Save Our Surgeons campaign is not necessarily against this so long as the evening and night-time shifts at Caithness General are staffed by doctors based at the hospital.

Until we can be confident the out-of-hours cover is safe in the long term, we hope members of the public will continue to show their determination to end the prospect of casualties having to travel the 100-mile journey south for operations at Raigmore.

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