Raigmore clinicians write letter to Humza Yousaf urging rejection of "flawed" plan to accommodate expectant Moray mums
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STAFF of Raigmore Hospital have labelled plans to let more expectant Moray mums give birth in Inverness as "flawed" and have called for the plan to be rejected.
As part of plans to restore a consultant-led maternity service at Dr Gray's Hospital in Elgin, it has been proposed that expectant Moray mums could give birth in Inverness rather than face a longer journey to Aberdeen.
The plan, known as Model 4, would be used as a short to medium term solution while the maternity service is fully restored at Dr Gray's.
However, a group of 22 clinicians from Raigmore have signed a letter expressing concerns over the plan claiming that it needs to be rejected.
They say that patient safety concerns have not been acknowledged and that Raigmore does not have the facilities or the the staff to accommodate expectant mums in Moray.
The letter also states that a consultant-led service at Dr Gray's should be re-instated as a "matter of urgency" with a time-scale on its full restoration yet to be revealed by Mr Yousaf.
Issues with proposals from senior health board management spending £5 million on a “clinically disruptive refurbishment of the maternity unit" which will fail to add a "single bed to its capacity" were also raised in the letter.
As such, a new maternity unit has been proposed by staff to accommodate any additional births and help has been sought to address Raigmore's "staffing crisis".
"Model 4 remains fundamentally flawed due to its intentional discontinuity of care for pregnant women, not just between clinical teams but between health boards," the letter said.
"From a buildings and facilities point of view, an entirely new maternity unit would be required to permit the care– under any model – of any significant additional number of pregnant women from Moray.
"There is therefore no prospect of this being achieved within the short-to-medium term.
"Model 4 must therefore be rejected and the consultant-led service at Dr Gray's Hospital re-established as a matter of urgency."
The letter was sent to Mr Yousaf on Monday.
The following day, he reaffirmed his commitment to the restoration of a consultant-led maternity service at Dr Gray's in a statement to Holyrood.
However, the statement came in for criticism from fellow MSPs and local group Keep MUM who said it did little to address many of the concerns which have been raised about the plans.
