Consultant-led maternity services to return to Moray

Consultant-led maternity services will return to Dr Gray's Hospital in Elgin, it has been announced.

Services at Dr Gray's were downgraded in 2018 due to staff shortages, forcing most expectant mothers to travel to Aberdeen.

A review recommended that in the short term a community unit should be set up which would mainly be linked to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.

Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said Raigmore would be expanded to help.

He said £10m of investment would deliver the plan, with £5m to start the development of services at Dr Gray's and a further £5m to improve facilities at Raigmore.

Speaking at Holyrood, Mr Yousaf said: "Safe maternity care as close to home as practicable is vital and 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.

"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."

However the plan was criticised by the Scottish Conservatives which said the plans "simply do not go far enough".

Leader Douglas Ross, who is a Highlands and islands MSP, criticised Mr Yousaf's failure to commit to a timescale to fully restore maternity services and highlighted his own family's experience of the situation.

"Continuing to have pregnant women make the journey to Raigmore or Aberdeen simply isn't safe," he said.

"I know from my own experience that travelling along the A96 to the hospital in Aberdeen was horrendous and something I wouldn't wish on anyone.

"I often wonder if my son's breathing difficulties shortly after being born were as a result of making that extremely difficult journey back to Moray when he was so young."

Maternity services were established at Dr Gray's in 1995 after a local campaign - but there have been difficulties in both recruiting and retaining staff over the last decade.

That led to the downgrading of services in 2018. The move was meant to be temporary, but the service has not been reinstated.

Some straightforward births still take place in Elgin, but the majority of Moray babies are delivered in Aberdeen.

The drive from Elgin to Aberdeen can take more than 90 minutes, depending on the conditions.

Last year the Scottish government commissioned a review to examine whether a consultant-led service could be reinstated.

Its report recommended setting up a community maternity unit which would mainly be linked to Raigmore.

The journey from Elgin to Inverness takes about an hour.

Lucy Purdy, from Knockando in Moray, is expecting her second baby. Her first was born in Aberdeen two years ago.

"We're 90 minutes away from the hospital. I was already in established labour when we got in the car, I was having contractions in the back seat," she said.

"It was a really long way and it was stressful. We didn't know how it was all going to turn out."

She said they had planned for their second child to be a summer birth so they would not need to make the journey in winter.

While Inverness is closer to home, Lucy said this would not make much difference.

"Inverness for us is slightly closer but still over an hour's drive, it feels quite similar in terms of the stress.

"Giving birth in Elgin would be an absolute dream," she said.

"We want to feel safe."

Mr Yousaf visited Moray and the Highlands last week to hear the concerns of campaigners and medical staff.

NHS Highland bosses said they had made the minister aware of the challenges already being faced at Raigmore.

These included the need for an overhaul of the Inverness hospital's maternity department so it was fit for the future, and difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff.

Marj Adams was involved in the original campaign which led to the creation of a consultant maternity unit at Dr Gray's.

Her daughter Amy was born in a cottage hospital in Huntly in 1985, en route from Elgin to Aberdeen.

"The cord was twice around her neck so it really could have been terrible", she said.

"This was before there was a maternity unit in Moray. So I got involved in the campaign."

Now a grandmother, she said it was "incredibly frustrating" that the consultant maternity unit they successfully campaigned for had been downgraded.

She said she had heard of women who did not want to have another baby in Moray because the support was not there for them.

Her daughters - including Amy - are now involved in the new Keep Mum (Maternity Unit for Moray) campaign.