NCT Watch

Liberal Democrat Public Health spokesperson Jamie Stone MSP has written to the Health Secretary demanding urgent clarification of the Scottish Government’s plans for maternity services in the north of Scotland and warns against downgrading maternity.

The Scottish Government has just published an action plan to “secure” the future of six hospitals in Scotland’s remote and rural areas. In the Scottish Government press release that accompanied the report, the Health Secretary promised that everyone in Scotland should have “equal access to the NHS, no matter where they live”. But, she went on to imply that the Scottish Government wants to see maternity services at 6 core rural hospitals being midwife-led. In his letter, Mr Stone notes that twice the consultant-led maternity service based in Caithness General Hospital in Wick has been considered for downgrading to a midwife led service and both times this has been strenuously opposed as a backward step by local people.