£5 million for Dr Gray's Hospital as Scotland's health secretary Humza Yousaf backs consultant-led maternity service
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Scotland's Health Secretary has pledged £5million for Dr Gray's – but offered no dates for when a full maternity service can be restored.
Speaking at Holyrood about the Elgin hospital's future, Humza Yousaf promised an eventual return to a consultant-led service.
This would allow a similar number of mums to give birth there as prior to its downgrade in 2018 because of a lack of consultants.
Until that happens, though, more Moray mums will be sent to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.
To help Raigmore cope with the extra number of expectant mums, Mr Yousaf announced a further £5million to improve its maternity facilities.
In addition as much antenatal and postnatal care "as possible" will take place at Dr Gray’s so as to reduce the need to travel outwith Moray for appointments.
Mr Yousaf said: "Safe maternity care as close to home as practicable is vital.
"I’ve heard directly from those most affected, namely local people and the clinicians working in both Dr Gray’s and Raigmore hospitals before making this decision.
"This new £10 million of investment in maternity services I’ve set out today will help create a consultant-led maternity unit at Dr Gray’s, with a community maternity unit, supported by consultant-led care from Raigmore in the interim.
"I hope this will see 80 to 90% of Moray births taking place at Dr Gray's when arrangements are completed.
"I am in no doubt about the scale of the challenges in delivering this, but I know we can deliver these changes over time and bring much needed stability to health services across the north east of Scotland.
"We will have a clear timetable for the restoration of a consultant-led maternity service as soon as possible."
In response Douglas Ross, Moray's MSP, said: "My fear today is that we are still a long way off that restoration.
"We've got no timescales, no milestones. We need to know when. Will it even be within this parliament? Can we get a date, a month, a year?"
Mr Yousaf replied: "I can't give you a date. If I did that I would be be quite frankly picking it out of the air.
"However I have given you the destination. The question now is what will it take to get Dr Gray's that full consultant-led maternity service. What investment is required? What staffing is required?
"I can promise two things.
"One, I will keep him and Parliament updated on those timescales – we will be open and transparent about that.
"Secondly, we will not shirk away from our resonsibilities regarding the investment required."
Meanwhile, Rhoda Grant, the Labour list MSP whose ward includes both Dr Gray's and Raigmore, claimed Mr Yousaf's announcement "threw money at the situation but didn’t solve the underlying problem of the shortage of nurses, midwives and doctors".
Moray MSP Richard Lochhead said after the debate: “I welcome the Health Secretary’s strong commitment to reinstate a consultant led maternity service at Dr Gray’s and the £5m investment to get the process underway.
“NHS Grampian must now work flat out to restore the service. An interim arrangement, for women to have the option of travelling to Inverness rather than Aberdeen, is to be implemented also but it’s important that the restoration of Moray’s service is taken forward in parallel so that no more time is lost and the new investment can allow that to happen.
“The Government’s statement lays out a path for the vast majority of Moray women to give birth at Dr Gray’s and a cast iron commitment from the health board to make this happen as soon as possible is now essential. I hope the commitment to independent oversight will give the community some confidence that NHS Grampian will have to deliver."
“I hope to meet Keep Mum who have ran a wonderful and powerful campaign, and others, to discuss next steps in the near future.”
Mr Ross added: "Despite the tireless efforts from local campaigners, the proposals from Humza Yousaf simply do not go far enough, quickly enough. He failed to provide any details as to when consultant-led service will be restored at Dr Gray’s.
“There are serious questions to answer as to why the health board have neglected Dr Gray’s and the communities in Moray for so long and why that looks set to continue.
“Continuing to have pregnant women make the journey to Raigmore or Aberdeen simply isn’t safe. I know from my own experience that travelling along the A96 to Aberdeen was horrendous and something I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
“I often wonder if our son James’s breathing difficulties shortly after being born were as a result of having to make that journey back to Moray when he so young.
“It feels like we are still some way off the majority of Moray mothers having the guarantee of giving birth in Elgin, which is hugely disappointing.
“I will continue to hold Humza Yousaf and the SNP Government to their promise of ensuring the Moray community is kept updated every step of the way, as right now I have deep concerns over the lack of timescales and milestones that have been laid out.”
