Rural doctor’s bedside manor
THEIR daily commute takes in some of the most breathtaking scenery in the world – and one of their work sites is in a castle.
Australia has its flying doctors – now Scotland has a team of seafaring GPs who set sail to deliver heath care to the Small Isles of Eigg, Muck, Canna and Rum.
NHS Highland has been awarded £1.5million to develop new ways of delivering health services. One of the innovative trials under way in the Small Isles sees visiting GPs from Skye, backed by community-based rural health and social support care workers and telephone and video link consultations.
NHS Highland programme manager Martine Scott said: ‘There was a need, because it was a very fragile area in terms of healthcare, to do something different.’
With a boat chartered to give the Small Isles their first GP cover for three years, the next mission was finding a base on Rum, where the 34 residents are outnumbered by 900 red deer.
It transpired that the island’s Edwardian Kinloch Castle was the only place with space to accommodate a surgery.
Cars are not allowed on the island which, along with the castle, is owned by Scottish Natural Heritage – so a ‘driver’ meets the boat to chauffeur the doctor to Kinloch in a buggy.
Dr Geoff Boyes moved from Hampshire to Skye in March to help Broadford-based GP Angus Venters provide cover for the Small Isles.
Dr Boyes, 58, said: ‘I was looking at Highland jobs and this one sounded fascinating.
‘It’s definitely different, that is one of the things that attracted me.’