Transfers are real problem

Caithness has been suffering recently from a gradual downgrading and less reliance on local hospital services, which has caused much controversy.

One of the most contentious health “benefits” has been a somewhat mediaeval practice of sending pregnant women on arduous trips of more than 100 miles to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness to deliver their babies.

It followed a particularly harrowing infant death – and a dawning realisation that local maternity services were substandard. Expectant mums are not alone: there were 14,000 transfers last year of all types of patients.

A protest campaign has been running for some time. There was good news at last yesterday as NHS Highland and the Scottish Ambulance Service announced a major investment in paramedics and ambulance cover for the far north.

It was conceded that this was in response to the huge number of hospital transfers, which are the underlying problem. It was like applying a bandage to a wound that is never going to heal.