CHAT is always totally apolitical, but it is worth mentioning – now the election is over and all that’s left to come will be the inevitable post-postmortems – that healthcare in Caithness played a very big part in the debate leading up to polling day.
CHAT contacted all of the candidates, and asked them to answer a number of important questions relating to Caithness medical care. We asked:-
Q1) Will you call for the immediate reinstatement of the long promised capital funding for Health Hubs in Caithness and improvements to Caithness General hospital? Q2) What will you do about the current maternity model for Caithness which does not meet our communities needs and how will you increase the number of births in our Caithness maternity unit? Q3) Do you agree that it was unfair to move children in statutory care from their home in Wick to Thor House in Thurso with no consultation with the service users in both Wick and Thurso? What will you do to rectify this? Q4) How will you ensure that our transport system in Caithness is fit for purpose to meet our communities needs? Q5) Why do you think Caithness is being ignored and (residents) treated like second class citizens with health services being continually centralised ? What will you do about this?
So who actually answered? Well, in alphabetical order, we heard from Lucy Beattie (SNP); Fiona Fawcett (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party), and Jamie Stone (Scottish Liberal Democrats). Each of them replied in great detail, and if you would like to read what they said, please visit our Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/caithnesshealth/
No other responses were received, but Eva Kestner, Scottish Labour Party, attended the recent Scottish Womens Convention roadshow at Wick – as a matter of note the report, which SWC will send to Scotgov, contains eight key recommendations, the first of which is to “Re-establish comprehensive maternity services within Caithness General Hospital as part of the current redesign process, to provide local care for women and babies”. No argument from CHAT there.
Lucy Beattie also met, (online, due to ill-health), with Maria Aitken, CHAT Secretary, and Iain Gregory, Vice-Chair, to discuss the questions raised, and Maria and Iain strongly stressed the need for Caithness to adopt the “Orkney Model” for maternity care, along with enhanced services for all patients, and far greater assistance in respect of travelling, and the cost of accommodation, for those people obliged to journey to and from Inverness.
So what we need now is action – We want the capital funding for the health hubs, and work at CGH, now – not in “at least two years” (by which time there will have been another Holyrood election); We need the maternity situation sorted out urgently – no more “promises”; no more “reviews”; no more “reports” and no more “discussions”. Just action; The situation with regard to Avonlea, the former Children’s home in Wick, and the loss of access to respite care at Thor House in Thurso, is not acceptable, and it has a direct effect upon people’s health and wellbeing, and Action is needed; Our transport system is nowhere near adequate. The A9 / A99 is frequently closed (by weather or accidents), and the Road requires substantial upgrades. We need far greater investment in public transport (after all over £1 Billion was spent to build some trams in Edinburgh), and we must have guaranteed air services for the years ahead. As to our final question, when we asked “Why are we treated like second-class citizens”? Alba Candidate Steve Chisholm said at a public meeting in Thurso, just ahead of the election, “Caithness could rightly be forgiven for thinking it’s a forgotten and neglected part of the country.” As always, no politics from CHAT, but he is right.
Rest assured that CHAT will continue to make very sure that we will no longer be “forgotten and neglected” – if the authorities think that we will sit quietly by whilst women and babies (and all the other patients) are forced to take the 100-mile plus torturous journey to and from Inverness, then they can think again. We constantly hear the refrain “There is no money”…………..Yes there is. We just need to keep pressing and make sure the cash comes this way. And we will.
Caithness Health Action Team 