Report to the People
27th October 2003
Way Forward on Maternity
By ducking every
one of the big issues, Argyll and Clyde’s short-sighted maternity plan does
not offer real solutions, but simply stores up more problems for the future. Last week’s news that it is to be implemented, then, was
both disappointing and infuriating.
I’m
not going to rehearse the arguments again.
By now you probably know them about as well as I do.
The
question now is: “where do we go from here?”.
Well,
if it’s up to the Health Board, we’ll be going to Paisley. (Although
how this squares with the Minister’s commitment that women who choose to give
birth in the world class facilities at Glasgow will still be able to do so,
I’m not sure.)
That
being said, we might not be going there for long.
How many expectant mums requiring consultant-led care are going to travel
to Paisley, when there’s a university-led service a few miles up the road in
Glasgow? It is only a matter of
time, with fewer and fewer mothers choosing to use it, before the Paisley
service is closed.
Also,
we cannot lose sight of the serious challenges facing the NHS which have been
uncovered by this campaign.
As
I mentioned in this column a couple of weeks ago, it is thanks in no small
measure to the work which has been done for the Rankin that NHS service planning
and the recruitment, training and retention of staff are finally on the
political agenda.
Indeed,
the Scottish Parliament’s Health Committee is now looking at holding an
inquiry into these fundamental issues. And,
it might be said, with similar uproar in Glasgow, Stirling, Perth,
Falkirk and elsewhere because of service reviews, about time.
In
the coming weeks, I will be arguing that this inquiry’s remit is wide enough
to allow a proper examination both of how these problems are arising and how
they can be addressed. Also, given the role
played by powerful specialist interests in the maternity review – including
the intense pressure piled on the Minister in the final days – I believe we
must ask questions about who exactly is running the NHS.
Ministers and the others
involved in delivering our much valued health service must accept that it cannot
be managed on the basis of stumbling from one crisis to the next. Services
must be planned sensibly and strategically.
In a country as small as
Scotland, is that really beyond the bounds of possibility?
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