Experts fear countryside communities face more
Emma Edwards has been left thinking twice about having more children after her experience giving birth in the Highlands.
Emma, 23, had to make two 200-mile round trips to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness when she had her daughter, including a twohour drive while she was in labour. Her baby Karmen Mcphee also suffered an injury during her caesarean delivery and it was 24 hours before a plastic surgeon travelled from Aberdeen to Inverness to treat her. Emma’s partner George Mcphee had to stay in a hotel and with friends while their daughter was kept in the special baby unit.
She said: “It kind of puts you off having another baby. “Having Karmen was brilliant but the run-up to it wasn’t because you’re so far away from home. It’s so frustrating knowing there’s a maternity unit on your doorstep that you can’t use.
“I had to stay overnight on a ward and it would have made such a difference to come home.”
The first-time mum, from Wick, needed a C-section when she gave birth in June 2017 because of the size of her baby. Maternity services at her local hospital, Caithness General, were downgraded in 2016 so Emma had to travel 100 miles to Raigmore to have her baby. The procedure was delayed so she was kept in for two nights before it was rescheduled and she was sent home. Her waters had broken by the time she made the uncomfortable return journey. Karmen then suffered a one-and-ahalf inch cut on the side of her head during the caesarean and had to stay in hospital for a week. But with fathers only getting two nights’ accommodation provided, which George had already used before Karmen was born, he had to fight to secure an extra two nights before being forced to stay with a friend.
NHS Highland carried out an investigation into Karmen’s injury and changed the way surgeons are briefed.
rates are climbing in the Highlands fuelling concerns of an escalating care crisis in rural Scotland. suggests that there is no rural poverty. Children and adults also suffer from poverty in rural areas.
“Some families are struggling badly and they and their children are hit twice – by poverty and poor medical cover.
The death rates in the Highlands were analysed by public health consultant Helene Irvine after her research into rural areas in the west of Scotland revealed similar, worrying trends. She has declined to discuss her report but Phil Wilson, professor of primary care and rural health at the University of Aberdeen, has read the findings, and said: “While urban death rates are improving, rural ones are rising or stalling.”
He believes there are many explanations, including the recession of 2008 and the ensuing service cutbacks driven by austerity.
He also blamed Scottish Government policies, including attempts to cut hospital admissions for the elderly, which began in 2010.
He said: “I think that changes in general practice away from the model of continuity of care, including reductions of GPS and district nurses will have a role to play in this.” The report on the Highlands found death rates among those aged one to 19 had shown a “visible deterioration” since 2015, with 17 deaths in 2017 – or 2.7 for every 10,000 people. In 2013 that figure was 1.7 per 10,000 people, and in 2015 it had fallen to 0.8.
In the 20 to 39 age group the increase was