Maree Todd vows to keep pushing for ‘high-quality, safe and sustainable’ maternity service
Maree Todd has underlined her commitment to ensuring “a safe, reliable and sustainable maternity service” in the far north.
She emphasised that she listens closely to constituents who share their maternity experiences and spoke of her determination to help boost recruitment in rural areas.
The SNP MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross was speaking after a meeting at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness with NHS Highland’s associate director of midwifery, Gillian Valentine.
During her visit, the MSP toured the maternity and labour ward and discussed issues surrounding maternity services affecting Caithness.
Ms Todd said later: “I am committed to ensuring that we have a safe, reliable and sustainable maternity service in the far north that fully supports expectant mothers and their families.
“More progress is needed, and my recent meeting with the associate director of midwifery was a valuable opportunity to engage directly with NHS Highland’s leadership on this.
“It allowed me to hear more about the challenges, share feedback from my constituents and learn about the steps being taken to improve care and support.”
Ms Todd highlighted recruitment in rural communities as a major challenge.
“While I am pleased to hear of recent additions to the Caithness midwifery team, which will help strengthen the team’s capacity, I appreciate that recruitment challenges still exist,” she said.
“I am determined to find ways of boosting recruitment in our rural communities and improving access to local training opportunities.
“To make careers in fields like midwifery more attractive and accessible, particularly in areas facing population decline like Caithness, we need to support people to live, work and study locally. This approach could help tackle staffing shortages and improve service stability.
“I know this is an area of focus for the Scottish Government, and I have written to the cabinet secretary for health and social care [Neil Gray] to request a progress update and to ask what more can be done to support rural healthcare recruitment and training in my constituency.
“I listen closely to each constituent who shares their experiences with me, making sure this feedback reaches NHS Highland and the Scottish Government to support the improvement of maternity services in the far north.
“I will keep pushing for progress towards a service that is high-quality, safe and sustainable.”
A spokesperson for NHS Highland said: “Gillian Valentine met with Maree Todd on October 23. It was an opportunity to show Ms Todd the maternity unit at Raigmore.
“It was great to share some of the service improvements, such as the outpatient induction process, that reduce the inpatient stay in hospital prior to the birth.
“It was valuable to hear feedback from constituents in Ms Todd’s area and we had the opportunity to discuss some of the challenges within rural and remote areas both for expectant families and recruiting staff to these areas.
“We also discussed the increased complexities of pregnancy and the enhanced antenatal, birth and postnatal surveillance that women and their babies may require.
“We continue to work with our midwifery colleagues across all our community midwife-led units to offer safe care close to home where appropriate and will continue to share any improvement with our local communities.”
Last month, Caithness Health Action Team (CHAT) warned it is “clearly not sustainable” to expect hundreds of mothers from the far north to travel to and from Raigmore while only a small number are able to have their babies locally.
The group called for “far more medical services” to be made available at Caithness General Hospital in Wick.
CHAT wants the so-called Orkney model – a midwife-led unit backed up by consultants – to be introduced locally.
