17 community councils in Moray back maternity campaign
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Community councils across Moray have backed a campaign to restore maternity services at Dr Gray’s Hospital.
The maternity unit at the Elgin hospital was downgraded in 2018, and while promises have been made about bringing it back again, this could take almost 10 years.
In July, Neil Alexander asked his fellow members of Elgin Community Council to get behind the Keep Mum campaign to restore maternity services.
He also asked them to lobby Humza Yousaf, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, to push NHS Grampian for faster action.
All 17 of the community councils across Moray have already expressed their backing.
Mr Alexander will send a letter to Holyrood this week once he receives formal responses from each of the 17.
He said: "It’s great to see community councils across Moray coming together over such an important issue.
"Support is continuing to grow, and hopefully we’ll get the health secretary to push NHS Grampian on their timetable.
"The near-10-year time frame is just ridiculous."
Around 75% of Moray women have their babies in Aberdeen, which is a 90-minute drive from Elgin.
Others go to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, which is an hour by road.
This year two mothers have already given birth at the side of the road on their way to Aberdeen.
Alastair Kennedy is the chairman of the Joint Community Councils group.
He said: "This is a Moray-wide issue and we need to help push it forward.
"For folk in Moray it seems all the resources are sucked into Aberdeen.
"There is an opportunity here to show that’s not necessarily the case."
