A former senior midwife has been appointed as the new rural general manager of Caithness General Hospital.
Pamela Garbe said it was an “exciting time” to be taking charge of hospital services in the far north, with an extensive redesign of services underway.
The health board has faced a number of challenges recently, not least the death of a newborn baby last year, which sparked a major review of maternity provision.
Mrs Garbe said that the health board would wait for the outcome of an extenral review before deciding on the future of provision.
Speaking in a personal capacity, she said she was “sympathetic” with concerns of expectant mothers who want to have their child close to home rather than travelling to Inverness – but she said she would safety before this.
NHS Highland has also struggled to recruit senior medical staff in rural areas.
Mrs Garbe, originally from Thurso, trained as a nurse and midwife in London before specialising in midwifery at Westminster Hospital.
She then spent some time working in Saudi Arabia before returning to Caithness to take up a position as a midwife in the Henderson Maternity Unit.
She has worked on a number of redesign projects, including the first review of maternity services in Caithness and Sutherland.
Prior to taking up her new role, Mrs Garbe was the associate lead nurse for NHS Highland’s north and west operational unit and project lead for the redesign of Caithness General Hospital.
Last night she said she was encouraged by progress on the redesign of the hospital and said staff and the community would be involved in the process.
She said: “As rural general hospital manager I look forward to continuing to working with healthcare staff and the local community to develop services to meet the future needs of the area.
“Key to improving services and facilities is working closely with the integrated teams to increase community based care to enable people to be cared for at home or in a homely setting where ever possible.”
NHS Highland’s director of operations for north and west, Gill McVicar, said: “I am delighted to welcome Pamela and to wish her well in her new role.
“She is of course well known in Caithness and has both sound local knowledge and a wealth of experience on which to build.
“This is an exciting time for Caithness General Hospital as it is developing and modernising both clinically and structurally in order to be fit for purpose for the future.”