CGH Maternity Services

[hillheader]

Has anyone heard that the Caithness General maternity ward will be closing or at the minimum, reducing the service?

Are NHS Highland trying to end these vital services slowly without protest by the locals ??

It is bad enough that there are no pediatrician services.

[Stack Rock]

Haven't heard anything yet. I wouldent put it past them as they are quite devious and would try any underhand measure to cut costs by reducing their commitments to outlying communities.

[lynne duncan]

shout louder!!!!!!!!

[Dadie]

in raigmore as you debate. they wontletme home until i have the gestational diabetes under control or i deliver my baby. even if i get home i will have to go back to raigmoe to have my baby. not good.

ps using handset thingy in hosp. and it doesnt like me

[carasmam]

in raigmore as you debate. they wontletme home until i have the gestational diabetes under control or i deliver my baby. even if i get home i will have to go back to raigmoe to have my baby. not good.

ps using handset thingy in hosp. and it doesnt like me

Hope you get home soon Dadie, you must be climbing the walls

[ShelleyCowie]

Oh for goodness sake! WHY are they doing this? The next hospital is over 100 miles away from where i am (thurso). And i found it hard enough getting to wick!! I was on the bus to wick and back....daily basis....in labour! Cant imagine if i had to take a bus down to ness just to have a bairn!

Do they not know how much we need that unit? Their reasons for closing surely can not be due to lack of staff because the 9 days i was there i hardly saw the same face twice! The staff there are lovely.

Well thats me in a rant before bed. grr! I really dont want it to close!

What can we do?

[BINBOB]

in raigmore as you debate. they wontletme home until i have the gestational diabetes under control or i deliver my baby. even if i get home i will have to go back to raigmoe to have my baby. not good.

ps using handset thingy in hosp. and it doesnt like me

I remember that well ,could not do emails properly.Really hope u will be home soon.....best wishes.

[brandy]

oh shelly i can tell you what its like! i did it 3 times!! try sitting a bus 3 hours twice a day every month then twice a month, with morning sickness.. a huge belly, and children in tow...
then try finding someone to care for said children when you go into hospital to stay until you have the baby, so parter can be with you..
then try getting back up the road.. best you can with new born baby, no car no transprtation, and a c-section.. and have the hospital tell you its not their problem how you get home.

[Dadie]

sent down tue night!
hubby went home tonight as he will have the other 2 to look after over the weekend and mon/tue before they go back to grannies!

he got kyle court to stay in for both nighs he was down but if he stayed any longer he would have to find his own accomodation. which is not great as no one knows how long i will be down.....plus the travel ... plus the cost..... plus the distance/time if anything happens.....

[Fly]

Haven't heard, but I would put nothing past that shower in Inverness. God help them if anyone loses their life or their baby due to the distance away. It could have happened to my daughter and granddaughter, due to last minute complications, if there had not been a consultant there. We should not be penalised because we live in the North. We pay the same taxes etc as someone in a big town so deserve the same level of service for an essential service such as maternity.

[ShelleyCowie]

oh shelly i can tell you what its like! i did it 3 times!! try sitting a bus 3 hours twice a day every month then twice a month, with morning sickness.. a huge belly, and children in tow...
then try finding someone to care for said children when you go into hospital to stay until you have the baby, so parter can be with you..
then try getting back up the road.. best you can with new born baby, no car no transprtation, and a c-section.. and have the hospital tell you its not their problem how you get home.

Its really not a good situation to be in is it! i had a section too. Couldnt imagine coming back up from ness after a section tho on a bus with a newborn! How awful are they trying to make it for women? Its just disgraceful! It really upsets me that if i were to have another child then i might have to travel that far on a bus.

Saying that i bet more women will try to opt for a home birth if it comes to it! I aint allowed one o those tho...so they say! But if i do have another one then i will seriously consider tellin em til shove it! My choice.

Does anyone have any email addresses of people we can email to get more info or protest against this happening?

[bullielove]

Has anyone heard that the Caithness General maternity ward will be closing or at the minimum, reducing the service?

Are NHS Highland trying to end these vital services slowly without protest by the locals ??

It is bad enough that there are no pediatrician services.

Where did you hear that from - as the Caithness maternity ward is not closing? To my knowledge its only high risk pregnancies get sent down to Raigmore for obvious safety reasons

Dont believe all the gossip of which there is plenty

[ShelleyCowie]

Where did you hear that from - as the Caithness maternity ward is not closing? To my knowledge its only high risk pregnancies get sent down to Raigmore for obvious safety reasons

Dont believe all the gossip of which there is plenty

Really? Phew.....had me goin at a wee rant to my OH there! His ear was near melting i think.

Really dont want CGH Maternity Unit to close or downgrade.

But it makes me wonder why women are no longer being enduced there anymore? It started not long after i had my son. I know of quite a few people who had a problem free pregnancy but still got sent to inverness.

Does anyone know?

[Fran]

We have been through all this before very recently. the hospital is NOT closing the maternity wing. If any mums are sent to Raigmore it is because they have problems and Raigmore has the equipmet and specialist staff which we dont have.

[brandy]

which is very triue fran.. raigmore has a wonderful staff and scbu is a godsend. saying that.. we should have our own. i know we dont have the population up here.. but the distance alone is disturbing. the fact that a child can not even be given an IV in caithness and has to be shipped of to inverness to have that done is ridiculous.
it is not the fault of the hospital staff who work their behinds off to do what they can but the fat cat administrators and beaurocrats who dosh out the money refusing to spend it where it needs and throwing it where it dosent.

[cuddlepop]

So sorry to hear you havent been keeping well and have ended up away from home so near christmas.

Raigmore is bad eneogh at the best of times but this time of year you must feel a million miles away.
Hope they get this under control and your home soon.

Thankfully you've got that handset and can log on here,bit of home if nothing else.

[Dynamic Sounds]

I for one do not want the maternity unit to close.

My little one was born in Raigmore last weekend due to the fact that the OH was gonna have to have an induction, and I can not fault the staff down there. But I would much rather have has my bairn in Wick, and have all the facilities here.

[BINBOB]

Does anyone know exactly how many babies have been born in wick ,recently???Methinks it is much less than was normal a few months ago!!

[shamrock2007]

Have heard that the Maternity Unit has been reduced down to a 6 bed unit & no longer Auxilary night staff. Its terrible what they are doing. Going to have a terrible effect on our Ambulance service aswell. Was in a situation a couple of weeks ago where we needed an ambulance for our 7yr old and there wasn't one available, doctor came to house, ambulance finally came through from Thurso, my daughter needed to go to Raigmore, the doctor let the ambulance go as it was the only one covering Caithness, I was expected to travel alone with my daughter but thankfully my Uncle took us down. We passed the Wick ambulance at tall pines going home & my uncle met it coming back down to Inverness on his way home! Surely with the cost of transfers it would pay to have a full service in Wick!!!!!

[Fran]

The maternity unit has NOT been reduced. the number of beds in all wards in all hospitals are being reduced because of new infection control rules. there has to be a certain space between beds, which there isnt now, so where we have 6 bed wards, they will be reduced to 4. this is not cutting down the hospital or the service it provides.
As for the ambulance service. In an emergency a helicopter can be here very quickly. Ambulance cars are often used to take children to raigmore usually with a hospital doctor travelling with them, at any time. An ambulance can be on call in a vast area so cannot make it quickly, both ambulances could be away. But, in an emergency help would be there within 8 minutes and as i said a helicopter could be used to fly an emergency to Raigmore.
Cases are prioritised. I remember "himself" urgently needed a blood transfusion at the time when the blood bank was closed at wick. The Doctor came and said an ambulance would be here shortly. It took 4 hours to come, from thurso with just the driver, and he was transferred to another ambulance at Tain which took him to Raigmore. The wick ambulances were both at an accident and another ambulance was dealing with a heart attack.These are unfortunate unforseen cicumstances which can happen at evenings.He could of course have gone by ambulance car.