NHS Grampian work to restore Moray maternity services at Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin on track as new recruits express ‘pride’
Staff who are at the forefront of restoring a hospital’s maternity services have spoken of their “pride” in helping women give birth closer to home.
NHS Grampian says that it now has 75 per cent of the staff in place to restore services at Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin.
Since its downgrade in 2018, the majority of women in Moray have travelled to Aberdeen to give birth.
But efforts to restore the service by 2026 are on track and NHS Grampian bosses say they are pleased with the progress made so far.
The Northern Scot spoke with two of the hospital’s newest staff members who will each play a part in helping more Moray women give birth in Elgin in the years to come.
Emma Grzyb-Yung has moved from Bristol to Moray to take up a position at Dr Gray’s Hospital as a Fetal Monitoring Midwife.
The job involves educating midwives and making sure they are confident in their roles.
She said: “I knew through the press that the hospital was converting back to an obstetric unit so for me it was a perfect opportunity.
“We love the area and I’d holidayed in Roseisle in the past so we know it’s a beautiful area.
“Coming from Bristol, it’s interesting to me that everything here is so far apart.
“As a bit of an outsider I was a little surprised by how rural everything is.
“You know it’s an hour and a half to Aberdeen so it’s vital we have a service here.
“It’s so vital for a lot of women here so I’m happy to play my part.”
Dr Mandy Hunter has also been recruited as part of efforts to restore services at Dr Gray’s Hospital.
She has taken up a position as a consultant obstetrician to care for women with complicated pregnancies.
Originally from Grangemouth, Dr Hunter knows the hospital well having given birth to one of her own children there.
Her appointment is one of many which are needed to reach NHS Grampian’s 2026 goal.
“I’ve always had a bit of a hankering to come back,” Dr Hunter said.
“It’s a really nice unit with a really nice team to work with.
“We get to be a bit more hands on here as consultants because it is a smaller unit.
“I think it would be a great achievement (restoring maternity services at Dr Gray’s) but we need to recognise that it’s a development so it’s not quite going to be a carbon copy of what we had prior to 2018.
“It’s going to be new and improved and there is going to be a real focus on longer term sustainability in terms of being able to retain the workforce.”
NHS Grampian has utilised an innovative recruitment campaign in its efforts to attract people to the area.
That has included the use of virtual reality which showed off some of Moray’s iconic landmarks, commercials targeting English cities and advertisements across social media.
Maternity Programme Lead Jane Gill is overseeing much of the recruitment process which is aiming to add around 100 staff members across NHS Highland and NHS Grampian.
She says the next “big focus” is on making sure planned C-sections can take place at Dr Gray’s.
“At the moment, we’re discussing tabeltop exercises which should be in place by December, maybe early January, so that is well on track,” Ms Gill said.
“We’re pretty confident in getting planned C-sections back next year.
“It’s never smooth but I think there is a real buzz around the hospital and with the recruitment so far.
“There is a sense of pride there and I think the morale has really been lifted.
“It’s going to be more than a full restoration. It’s about doing more than we did before.
“It will be a much more comprehensive service and the key is for it to be a sustainable service.”
The expansion of maternity services includes a requirement for additional paediatric expertise.
That has seen an additional three consultants brought on board in the department.
Consultant Paediatrician Dr Morag Turnbull said: “We’re obviously not maternity, but in order for a functioning maternity unit, you have to have a functioning paediatric unit.
“We have seen our department grow over the last five years.
“We're now at six full-time consultants. There were points when we were at three, so six feels great.
“The funding for the advanced paediatric nurse practitioners has come through the maternity program, and that is really exciting in terms of how we deliver care to babies and children in Moray.
“We've got additional junior staff as well.
“We've got eight on the junior rota, where we previously only had six and we're seeing year on year, although there are difficulties with national recruitment, we've got a lot of people that come through our department as trainees and want to stay for longer so we're seeing that development.”
