Community groups in remote corners of the Highlands have been urged to join forces to campaign against cuts to local emergency GP cover.
Caithness Health Action Team (Chat) issued the call after the health board unveiled plans for a controversial shake-up of the out-of-hours medical service across the region.
The proposals, which are due to be discussed by NHS Highland board members at a meeting in Inverness today, aim to address chronic staff shortages and “spiralling” costs.
Under the plans, the current doctor-led service will become “multi-disciplinary” across the Highlands, with nurses and paramedics responding in more cases.
There will also no longer be locally-based out-of-hours GP cover in Lochaline in Morvern, Glenelg in Lochalsh, Applecross in Wester Ross, and Lochinver, Armadale and Tongue in Sutherland.
Health board members have been told it will make the service “more resilient” and make “better use of the available resource”.
However, concerns were expressed last week that lives could be put at risk in the remote areas which will lose local out-of-hours GP provision.
Doctor cover in Armadale and Tongue would be withdrawn, with the service to be provided from Thurso instead.
The move has emerged amid ongoing community anger in Caithness over the lack of maternity facilities in the region.
Nicola Sinclair, secretary of Chat, said: “We would fully support the other communities affected as well. We would invite them to get in touch.
“From our point of view it is exactly the kind of cuts we have been campaigning against.
“Any kind of cuts are potentially dangerous. Wick and Thurso can hardly cover itself. There’s a chronic lack of GPs.
“What bothers me about it is NHS Highland is always saying the recruitment problems are because of the remoteness, but any cuts can be dangerous because of the remoteness.
“It seems like a relentless drive at the moment of cuts and cuts and cuts. It feels like the Highlands always gets a raw deal.”
