I'm thankful that you are taking the community's concerns seriously and that we are being listened to. Quite simply, we need Gynaecology to be reinstated to Caithness General Hospital urgently. It was removed after a review of Obstetrics but no Equality Impact Assessment was ever carried out on Gynaecology - making the changes unlawful. 51% of the population are women are they are being knowingly neglected by the current situation. The issues surrounding healthcare access in the north are vast and include; - The physical geographical access to care - Financial access to care - The breaches of Human Rights that Scotland has sworn to uphold for it's citizens - Quality of life impact with care so far from home - Risk of further disability or illness due to lack of diagnostic scanning out of hours or at the weekends - No out of hours or emergency gynaecologist on site - NHS Staff leaving due to internal politics & being burnt out/understaffed - Road conditions & weather making accessing care almost impossible in winter - Mental health; from feeling forgotten or isolated by the centralisation of care - Economical; residents avoiding the area or moving away - Emotional & relationship strain on families causing stress - Risk to health; travelling long distances after operations/procedures To hear more on our concerns please visit; www.northhighlandwwh.com/campaigns Here's hoping REAL change happens after this review. The Women of the North & their loved ones deserve better.
it is an absolute disgrace that in this day and age we are being treated with very little regard, dignity or respect. What the HNS is doing is turning Caithness into a modern day Highland Clearance . But covid saw a big influx of people moving into the area and our already stretched and struggling services can not cope.
As a woman who is about to travel from Wick to Inverness for surgery this week I want to be listened too. I am having excision surgery for removal of Endometriosis & Adhesion's along with an oophorectomy with possible work on the bowel. Quite a big deal but it isn't the surgery that scares me most it is the thought of travelling home afterwards on a road extremely busy with NC500 traffic. A road that has become much more dangerous, where I have personally experienced far to many near misses. The fact I have a family history of blood clots and have to travel so soon after my surgery. I am scared of being away from my family. We deserve to have safe local services. Travel comes with great risk. We used to have amazing care in Wick.
This is misleading as we do have gynae care in Caithness and Raigmore. No gender/group has an automatic right for greater health care when some of the population has minimal to no provision of local health care, no consultant psychiatrist, no community paediatrician, no orthodontist and very long wait over 18 months for CAMHS and years for neurological assessment, letting down vast amount of patients in desperate need. Unethical that our gynecologists are allowed to promote their own private clinics when this service is stretched. NHSH has poor judgement, is accountable for allowing the current local gynae lead to be awarded this (not advertised) role as they were a large advocate and instrumental in the loss of the previous gynae service.
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