Isles under threat due to ‘loss of child-bearing women’, warns NHS
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THE NHS has warned the future of several Scottish islands is under threat because of a shortage of ‘child-bearing women’.
In a hard-hitting report, the health service has highlighted the alarming exodus of younger women from the Western Isles.
Officials have warned the shortage of females aged between 1845 is storing up problems for the island communities of Lewis, Harris, Benbecula, Barra and North and South Uist.
Unless the decline can be reversed, they say, not enough people will be available to work in health and care in the future, putting services for the most vulnerable at risk.
Meanwhile, the local council has also called for urgent action to tackle what it calls ‘the greatest threat to the sustainability of the islands’. The NHS Western Isles report said: ‘The population changes will result in a year-on-year reduction in the available workforce to nurse, care and attend to the most vulnerable of people whose numbers are increasing year on year.’
It warned ‘we are now seeing a sizable decline in births due to the loss of child-bearing women’.
Statistics show the number of women aged 18-45 on the islands fell from 4,224 in 2005 to 3,590 in 2020 – a drop of 15 per cent.
The islands’ board highlighted this as one of the key ‘emerging issues’ facing health and social care. In a financial report, it said: ‘Using updated population prediction, the islands are expecting to see a 6 per cent drop in population by 2028, one of the biggest population decreases in Scotland.
‘The Health and Social Care Partnership is already feeling the effect of the changes in demography with high levels of vacancies in social care workforce and nursing workforce.’
The report added: ‘The islands are not replenishing their loss of population through an increase in births, and the islands are in that position where depopulation will now start increasing faster year on year.’
A second workforce report, from the Western Isles Health and Social Care Partnership, said that ‘all island areas in the last three years are now seeing higher deaths, lower births and a reduction in child-bearing aged women’.
It warned of a ‘Catch-22’ situation where a future ‘possible reduction in services’ could deter families from moving to the islands and prompt other families to leave.
A spokesman for Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar, the Western Isles council, said: ‘The threat of depopulation is a matter of great concern to the Comhairle and its partner agencies and is the greatest threat to the sustainability of the islands.’
Initiatives to combat depopulation include an apprenticeship scheme and a dedicated settlement officer to attract people to the Uists.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We will continue to work closely with remote, rural and island boards where we know recruitment and retention challenges can be particularly acute.’