Snowfalls underline safety concerns over Caithness mums-to-be
This week's heavy snowfalls across the far north have underlined the safety fears over local women who have to travel to Inverness to give birth, according to a healthcare campaigner.
Ron Gunn, chairman of Caithness Health Action Team (CHAT), claimed that people from the county are being "taken for granted" and called for more services to be provided locally.
“It's an additional worry with the road conditions," Mr Gunn.
“You don't know what it's going to be like. Even if a snowplough goes through, the road can block behind it.”
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.
Only eight mothers gave birth in the community midwifery unit (CMU) at the Wick hospital 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.
Mr Gunn said: “We've been told by folk that are better qualified than me that they would expect a CMU to be able to have about 25 to 30 per cent of local mothers giving birth there. That would be 50 to 70 mothers – it would save them the worry of having to go down to Inverness.
“We did a survey of 176 Caithness mothers and a big majority wanted to give birth in Wick. My understanding is they want to give birth there and their families want them to give birth there, but they seem to be going to Inverness.
"Another question was, 'Do you feel you had a choice where you gave birth?' and 87.3 per cent said no.
“We were alarmed with the announcement of the additional money being spent on maternity in Raigmore, specifically mentioning for more Caithness mothers to come.
"They are just taking us for granted up here.
“There's not only the worry of the maternity situation but also other patients.
“We haven't got up-to-date statistics, but there are still about 6000 or 7000 Caithness patients going to Inverness each year, nearly all outpatients.
“We would like to see some of those services coming back to Caithness."
CHAT wants the so-called Orkney model – a midwife-led unit backed up by consultants – to be introduced locally. Around 80 per cent of Orkney mothers give birth in their local area.
“The population of Orkney is 22,000 and something, and Caithness is just about 25,000," Mr Gunn said. "Their birth rates are very similar, about 200 a year, but of course 80 per cent of their mothers give birth in Orkney because of the model they have – which is midwife-led with consultant backup.
“That's what would work. Okay, it would cost a bit, but at the end of the day it would give reassurance that the majority don't have to go to Inverness.”
CHAT members raised their concerns directly with Humza Yousaf at a meeting in Wick in August 2022. Mr Yousaf, now Scotland's First Minister, was still health secretary at the time.
Mr Gunn vowed: “We will continue the campaign and we're still not getting an answer. We asked Humza Yousaf when we met him, 'Why can we not have more births in Wick?' We keep asking that question.
“Whenever anything is raised, the Scottish Government has this quote: 'Safe maternity care as close to home as practicable is vital.' How can Inverness be 'close to home and practicable'?”
He is also unhappy that most expectant mothers from Caithness have to make their own transport arrangements to get to the Highland capital.
"The ambulance is only used if the hospital requests it or it becomes an emergency," Mr Gunn said.
"The driver with all his worries, his expectant wife or partner beside him, and the worry over snow and the roads... it can't possibly be a safe form of getting somebody to hospital.
"The snow just highlights to everybody the problems. If we had the services locally, there might still be a wee bit of a problem [for some people] getting to Wick – but nothing like getting to Inverness."
In November 2023, CHAT met senior figures from NHS Highland in Caithness General Hospital.
One of the points made by the group was that there would be a "public outcry" if the tables were turned and most mums-to-be from Inverness were asked to travel more than 100 miles to Caithness to give birth.