Training for healthcare positions(not just lower income positions) needs to be local and accessible by local people, so they train in their community and live and work in their community(grow our own principles).Example midwifery training being removed from Inverness. Stop fixed term contracts for rural and remote areas- who would be attracted to move to an area to work and live for a very short period of time? I looked at vacancies for NHS Highland and there were 30 fixed term vacancies advertised ,many of these were vital services for rural and remote areas. Stop centralised clinics and vital healthcare services, as people are being left very vulnerable in their own communities. Not everyone has transport to get to clinics over 100 miles away.The public transport system is not reliable . Often people are travelling a 200+round journey to be told their clinic or operation has been cancelled,some have had to travel much further with so much stress and financial burdens involved ,to then be told their operation has been cancelled . Stop centralised ambulance control service as it is not working. People are being denied ambulance assistance : examples of this are elderly with broken hip waiting over three hours for ambulance assistance and local ambulance wasn't aware of their need for assistance (controller based in Inverness over 100 miles away) Young footballer with broken bone could not get an ambulance and had to be taken to hospital by a spectator at the match...
Its a 236 mile round trip! I wish all NHS management could be in labour on a 2 1/2 hr plus journey. How can you make such decisions if you havent? The A9 is a treacherous road subject to many road clousures. However, it's the only way to Raigmore, unless you wish to take a longer extremely bumpy route more fit for agricultural vehicles. I wouldnt put ANY child in that position. Let alone the mother who requires immediate medical attention! Youre playing a deadly game with lives. Young lives.
The infrastructure in rural areas, and even semi-rural areas is not good enough to enable centralisation of all services. Take the A9 and A96 as prime examples - journey times are putting young mothers and babies at risk (especially in winter). We understand that specialist services should be carried out at centres of excellence but we have the physical infrastructure in place in many rural population centres to deliver other care. Take the example of Orkney - where the maternity unit is staffed so 2/3 of women give birth there. It all comes down to staffing
Centralisation has killed the HNS in local communities. The services Caithness General offered before we got lumped under Raigmore was second to nine and could be again. Raigmore can’t cope and it’s so blind sided and narrow minded of them to think the are the epicentre of health care. Folk want to be looked after and cared for in their own community and that should be a right .
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