Surely Councillors will save Wick Maternity Unit?

[frank ward]

Although the letter below was published in the Northern Times, the Groat and the Courier apparently declined to print it.

Are people prepared to leave the defence of maternity services in the hands of Councillors, given their dismal failure over GM crops and other issues ?

As far as I am aware, there appears to be no attempt to mount a campaign involving the public.

I would like to hear from concerned persons.
Frank
..............

Text of press letter sent w/c 15/9/03:


Northern Maternity Services

Dear Sir,
Regarding the impending review of maternity services in Caithness, your readers there and in northern Sutherland have every justification in feeling apprehensive. If a city the size of Perth faces cuts, then Wick indeed is in danger.
Under the guise of 'reform', 'review' and 'creating centres of excellence', the Scottish Executive is conducting a devious economy drive. Labour and the Liberal Democrats are equally to blame. The Tories quietly approve of this process and will mount no more than token protests.
To any ordinary person the notion of travelling from Wick to Inverness for childbirth - or even a consultation - is nonsensical. But not to the men in grey suits. Identical reviews to the one planned for Wick have already recommended the centralisation, downgrading or closure of maternity units. In Argyll & Clyde NHS (Population 400,000), the board decided to concentrate all consultant-led services in one hospital. Expectant first-time and older mothers over an area of nearly 3000 square miles stretching from Oban to Tiree to Campbeltown will face long journeys to Paisley. Falkirk has lost its unit to Stirling. Maternity consultants in Perth, Montrose, Ayrshire and the Borders also face the axe. Greenock and Dunfermline have already been closed. The Labour/LibDem plan will concentrate maternity services for a quarter of the Scottish population in two hospitals which are seven miles apart!
In Scotland around 20 units are under threat. Increasingly, women will be forced to have their babies far from home and alone.
The timing of each of these cuts has been staggered, probably to defuse the potential of a national co-ordinated protest. Divide and conquer. While each individual area tries to justify its own case, and allows the local MSP to bluster his/her righteous anger, it hides the fact that these same politicians are doing nothing to oppose the cuts elsewhere. In May, at Strathkelvin and Bearsden, independent candidate Jean Turner ousted the sitting MSP over threatened hospital closures. But they also hope that by the time of the next election in 2007 these cuts will have been implemented and the voters will have forgotten.
Meanwhile the Health Trusts - unelected Quangos stuffed with government-appointed yes-men - remain in place. Did Jamie Stone and his pals demand Labour honour its 'Bonfire of the Quangos' promise as part of their partnership deals with Labour? er...No.
Is the review committee independent? Hardly! - the chair is Ann Jarvie, who also happens to be a highly-paid Scottish Executive employee, the chief nursing officer.
The Scottish Executive will give a variety of excuses, including Scotland’s falling birth rate, demographic changes, workforce pressures on medical staff and the European Working Times Directive. But in truth it is the past - and continuing - political failure to train sufficient medical staff that lies at the root of these cuts.
These proposed midwife-led units will be geared up solely for low-risk births. But you can have a very normal pregnancy that suddenly turns into being a very scary one and you would just love to be near to a hospital maternity unit. If Wick is downgraded to purely Midwifery status (called Community Maternity Unit or CMU), even an epidural injection could result in a trip to Inverness. Caesareans will of course be unavailable. Women also excluded from giving birth in CMUs include those where the foetus is not engaged, which is more likely if it is not your first birth.
Trainee doctors would be less attracted to Caithness as it would provide a narrower field of experience. Thus a spiral of decline would ensue. Once the consultant-led services moved, it would be easy for health managers to move all obstetric, gynaecological and paediatric services out as well.
The staff, patients and people of Caithness can fight this threat. Any decision must go to the Executive for approval. Resistance must be both local AND national. There was a local campaign against the previous threat to the Wick Maternity Unit, and if there is any move to revive or restart such a group by citizens in Caithness I would be pleased to hear from them. They can count on the full support and facilities of the Scottish Socialist Party.

Yours sincerely,

Frank Ward
Scottish Socialist Party
Caithness & Sutherland Branch
St Barr's, Dornoch.
01862 811233

[jjc]

Are people prepared to leave the defence of maternity services in the hands of Councillors, given their dismal failure over GM crops and other issues ?
I don’t think it is either fair or constructive to blame local Councillors for national issues, Frank.

Whilst it is true that Council members have a platform from which to raise issues concerning their constituents, they are, like the rest of us, subject to the decisions of central government. Like most of us, most of them have no special link to the 'ear' of that central government – 57 of the 80 Highland Councillors are independent of any political party. Their role as Councillor is not a full time position, nor is it, in general, a paid post (although I hear that the expenses are nice ;))

Compare that with an MP’s basic salary of £56,358 (plus £64,304-£74,985 staffing allowance, 3 PCs, 1 laptop, 2 printers/scanners/copiers, software licenses, and expenses), or with an MSP’s basic salary of £49,315.

Both of these (full time) positions exist to allow the constituents' interests to be represented in the forum where the decisions are made. Unlike local Councillors, Members of Parliament are, funnily enough, granted access to (and a voice in) parliamentary debates and votes where national legislation is formed.

The heart of the GM crop issue lies not in the council offices of the Highlands but in the parliamentary offices of London and Edinburgh. The same offices hold the responsibility for the policies and funding of the NHS. It is the MP and MSP who should be taking the voice of the people to the debating forum.

Don’t get me wrong; the voice of the people needs to be heard by the MP/MSP first so that they know what the people want them to say when they get to parliament. And you are right in saying that both local and national resistance should be brought into play. However, your letter and your posting both came across to me (and probably to a number of other readers) as little more than political point scoring by the Scottish Socialist Party (perhaps the reason why the Groat and Courier declined to print the letter?)

With an issue as important to the health and safety of the people who you hope to represent, would it not be more prudent to concentrate on solving the problem rather than calling on others to do the leg work whilst you reap the political gains through association – after all, there is nothing to stop you from personally mounting the campaign you feel the public so obviously needs, is there?

[you]

The last time the Maternity Unit at Wick was under threat it was a locally led group organised by mothers who set the pace for the resistance. They did not include G.M. crops or any other factor into their resistance, but focussed on the NEED for a consultant led maternity service to be based at Wick General.

By the way - some forty or so years ago I had to travel down the Old A 9 in labour and arrived at Raigmore half an hour before my eldest son was born. It was not a happy journey...........ask my other half :cool:

[Anonymous]

I totally agree with jjc, party politics has been slowly reduced to the childish level of points scoring. They all do it and seem reluctant to get involved with any projects where they cannot throw mud at each other.

What they need to learn is:

We dont care who's fault you think it is, we just want to know how YOU are going to fix it.
Stop blaming everything on each other, it wastes everyones' time and gets nothing done.

The maternity unit, I feel is like the beginnings of this site, there were plenty of official voices that did not want us to build caithness.org, in fact there are some people who I'm sure still spit every time they hear our name. Luckily enough, we ignored them all and just got on with it. By all means put out your feelers for a bit of assistance from the MSPs etc, but dont hold your breath and don't wait for them to come up with the answer for you, just get on with it, start making more noise than they can choose to ignore.

The big meetings last time seemed to do the trick, showed em how much we care about our local services here. Same again this time? who knows? well worth a try though.

Saying that, this also seems like the continuing government trend of trying to completely dismantle the NHS, or at least to cripple it enough that the people who can afford it move to private care. Why was the NHS started again? How long will it be before its privatised?

[frank ward]

JJC and Niall thank you for responding. But both of you miss the point.

I first raised this matter on this website back on 13th September, when I asked if anyone was interested in reviving the previous protest group. Although the thread had 65 hits, none responded. People I know in Wick and Thurso also report that so far they have heard nothing of organised protests other than from councillor Flear and others. Whilst this is welcome, it is not the answer. I raised a criticism of the Highland Council precisely because it is easy for them to make self-righteous pronouncements on issues over which they have no authority (viz GM crops).

I tried again with this thread, hoping that be being provocative I might get some response.

I still think my letter was well thought out and tried to bring the local and national pieces together.
Some parts may be construed as political 'point scoring', but how else can political points be made? This IS a political issue. Political arguments, and political pressure, should be high on the agenda. If they're not, Wick's fate will be determined by the same Lib/Lab politicians who have closed down other maternity units.

If Niall doesn't care 'who's fault' it is, then the culprits will get away with it. Niall also wants to know 'how YOU are going to fix it'. But the thrust of my argument has been that it's not for me, or the SSP alone, to fix it - given our low strength, we simply can't!
The SSP could easily - but will NOT - set up its own little sectarian group as a substitute for a grass-roots campaign. Such opportunism would gain us publicity but not help much with the problem at hand. But a defence CAN be mounted by ordinary people getting organised, and the SSP is willing - despite our small numbers - to help. And we will of course give what 'leg work' we can.

Frank Ward

[Anonymous]

I think, Frank, you have made my point beautifully.

No I dont care who is to blame. Perhaps you could tell me what kind of punishment will be meeted out to those who are found at fault? if its going to more of the same as your original letter, mud slinging, then I dont care about that either.

In these sorts of issues, finding who is to blame only serves a purpose if that person/group is going to fix matters when they are caught out otherwise why waste any resources trying to find someone that you wish to throw mud at.

I'd rather spend my time looking for the person who has the solution, rather than those who may have caused the problem.

If, Frank, you feel that you and your party are unable to help then please go and get on with something that you can help with. Otherwise, please stop trying to convince us that all these matters are political, life and death is not politics. I hate politics and all that it represents, its as bigoted as religeon. Why tar yourself with this brush? I thought that the party you represent was supposed to be different, apparently not.

Dont get me wrong, I'm all for debate and discussion of problems like the maternity unit are imperative. I just dont see the point in trying to work out who is to blame, after all, polititians are slippery and can lie in all sorts of convincing manners that would not get them into trouble in a court of law, so why bother. Lets just get on with the matter in hand and let history apportion blame.

[Doolally]

Whether or not Frank is trying to score political points or not, and what politician wouldn't, at least he is trying to find interested parties, that together, may be able to make a difference.

Without someone, political influences or not, getting some kind of action group together to fight against the possible closures, we may as well throw our hands in the air and let whoever wants a piece of our county scavenge what they like.

Is that really what we want? Should we not at least make the views of many in Caithness be heard and counted? Without them we will end up with nothing while the Capital of the Highlands will grow ever greater.

If Frank can help assist a campaign that is successful, then all the best to him. At least he is willing to do something while the vast majority sit, do nothing, then complain that we, once again have lost something of value to us all.

[jjc]

I agree Doolally, if there is a possibility of this crassly bureaucratic closure going ahead then something does need to be done and, whilst an individual with a passion for the issue will be able to get people talking, it will take a group of likeminded people to really bring the issue to the fore. And if Frank can assist that campaign then that is great… but if you read through Frank's 714 word letter you will see that only the last two sentences relate in any way to him actually offering any kind of support – and that is under the auspices of the SSP.

The rest? It basically translates into:
"Labour did it. The Liberal Democrats helped. So did the Tories. Blame the MSPs. Oh, and the Health Trusts… and the Scottish Executive… and the EU… but not us. Oh no, not us!! Did I mention Highland Councillors???"

The title of this thread gives away Frank's underlying political agenda. "Surely Councillors will save Wick Maternity Unit?"… Well, no. They probably won't. The reason? Because in this particular matter they have only slightly more power than you or I, and possibly less sympathetic media than would a group of concerned mothers. He's setting them up for a later cry of "'See! They failed you again! We wouldn't do that to you!"

This kind of politics (and I use the word loosely because it isn't what I consider politics to be about) does nothing to further the issue in question. As Niall so rightly points out, it merely shifts the focus towards trying to find who is to blame. We would surely be better trying to find who is to blame AFTER we fix the problem?

And Frank…

I think it may have been you, not Niall and me, who missed the point. This is obviously something that affects the community. I can see that it might be counter productive for the SSP to take the lead on this debate as party politics might interfere with the bigger picture. As this is something which you profess to care about out with your party line, would it not therefore be feasible for you to do something on a personal level? Instead of looking for others who are sticking their heads above the parapet in the media glare, how about sticking your own up there first and see who follows?

Also:

I raised a criticism of the Highland Council precisely because it is easy for them to make self-righteous pronouncements on issues over which they have no authority (viz GM crops).
Can you please explain the difference between the Councillors making self-righteous statements and your own letter – which does appear to cast a lot of blame and damnation but does little in the way of offering actual solutions???

[©Amethyst]

It's bad enough having roads closed in the depth of winter... but what about when the A9's closed by snow and/or the weather isn't good enough for a chopper... I think it's very important that the Wick Maternity Unit is kept open. Closing it would be like closing the High Dependancy Unit there. It's like 'they' (whoever they are.. i don't know since I don't have the patience to read articles about the maternity unit any more) don't care about the welfare of new born babies and their mothers.

When will it end?