A consultant-led maternity service in the far north is to be downgraded to a midwife-led operation in the interests of safety, health chiefs in the Highlands have decided.
Pregnant women in Caithness and parts of Sutherland at risk of complications during the birth of their babies, are to be taken in advance over 100 miles from Wick to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, under new arrangements.
The board of NHS Highland has decided to set up a Community Midwife Unit (CMU) at the Caithness General Hospital in Wick. Seven CMUs already operate across the Highlands. Raigmore Hospital is to be strengthened as a ‘hub’, providing 24-hour-per-day obstetric, neonatal and senior midwifery support to all the CMUs.
The maternity unit in Wick is currently led by consultant obstetricians, but it has no facilities for on-site specialist neonatal paediatric support or adult intensive care. It has a rota of three obstetricians and so teach obstetrician has to intervene infrequently and simply does not support having an obstetric-led unit, according to the health board.
The decision to move to a CMU followed a review into the Caithness maternity services. Five newborn babies had died at the Wick hospital since 2010, and wo were seen as "potentially avoidable".
A majority of births will still be in Wick, under the new midwife-led service which could be in place by April. The board recognises that better access to "homely accommodation" for mothers and families who have to stay near Raigmore Hospital will be required
A report to the health board said "This change is designed to improve the safety of both new born babies and mothers during labour and birth for the population of Caithness and Sutherland."
However, the change is opposed by local campaigners. Some travelled from Caithness to demonstrate outside the board's meeting in Inverness. They are concerned about the risk of transporting women nearing their birth dates down the A9, past notorious sections of the road such as the Berriedale Braes. They also can't understand how taking doctors away and replacing them with midwives can make the service safer.
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