NHS bosses have stressed that the new maternity system in place at Moray’s flagship hospital is “absolutely safe” for mothers and babies.
Changes came into effect at Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin last Wednesday with the service reduced to a midwife-led unit.
The move comes on the back of staff shortages and means that all medium and high risk pregnancies will now be transferred to Aberdeen or Inverness.
Elgin maternity unit changes due to lack of paediatric support
However, the new system, which could be in place for the next year until the health board recruits new staff, has been criticised by local residents.
Campaign group Keep Mum has branded the plans “unsafe”, raising concerns over heavily pregnant women travelling to other hospitals to give birth to get consultant care.
NHS Grampian Chief Midwife Jane Raitt has moved to reassure worried Moray residents.
She said: “The new system is absolutely safe for mothers and babies. Midwifery led care is an established model, it’s evidence-based, it’s established across the UK.
“There have been numerous studies, there is a study of over 16,000 low-risk births in the UK that showed that midwifery led care is not only safe but it leads to less interventions than obstetrics led care and it has improved outcomes for women so the model of midwifery led care is absolutely safe.”She said: “Calling these changes a downgrade gives a real negative impression. What we are doing is delivering a really safe service, whilst we ensure that we get a positive, reinforced, consistent workforce in place.”
NHS Grampian acting chief executive Amanda Croft praised staff for adapting to the new system, stating that staff continued to work “incredibly hard, day in day out, to keep services going at the hospital”.
She said: “They are going above and beyond what is expected of them to ensure patients receive the best of care. This doesn’t stop. Indeed we have had several births at the hospital since the changes came into effect.”
And Sue Swift, NHS Grampian’s divisional manager for the women and children’s service, spoke of her pride at how united the hospital has become after the “hard decision” to change the maternity unit.
She said: “The paediatric nurses are also impacted upon and they have been extremely supportive of some of the very complex decisions having to be discussed. This is a hospital that is really united through a really challenging time but we are committed to finding the right solution.”
Moray politicians call on health board to re-assure locals
NHS Grampian bosses met with Moray’s MP Douglas Ross, MSP Richard Lochhead and campaign group Keep Mum to discuss the maternity ward changes.
Mr Ross called on the health board to do more to reassure worried locals about the service.
He said: “Crucially, I was seeking clear timeframes and objectives that need to be met before the maternity unit can revert to its previous service that we enjoyed in Moray. Sadly, they were unable to answer these points and have simply said that they will write to me when the information becomes clearer.
“This is simply not good enough and the ongoing concerns that are raised with me about a concerted campaign to downgrade Dr Gray’s Hospital will continue.”
Mr Lochhead believes that NHS Grampian needs to act quickly to come up with a long-term solution for the maternity service.
He said: “I urged the NHS to do more to recruit staff in the short term to bridge the gap between now and the redesigned service promised in around a year’s time to allow a consultant led maternity unit to continue in between times.
“In the meantime, we’ve got the obstetricians and paediatricians at Dr Gray’s and the view locally is that NHS Grampian is not doing enough to use this resource to allow at least some women who require consultant support to deliver in Elgin.”
A spokeswoman for Keep Mum said that they raised a number of concerns with the officials: “The suspicion remains in Moray that Aberdeen based obstetricians and paediatricians wish obstetric services to be centralised in Aberdeen. We have asked the acting chief executive and medical director to think again about the downgrade of the service and consider what else could have been done and should be done now.”