Maternity and paediatric services at Dr Gray's Hospital: report by CMO Advisory Group

Introduction

4. This paper considers the provision of maternity and paediatric services in the short and medium term at Dr Gray's Hospital, Elgin (DGH) and is prepared to the terms of reference provided by the Scottish Government . The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing has instructed NHS Grampian to develop a plan as to how they will return an obstetric led service to DGH as soon as possible.

5. The Cabinet Secretary has agreed several priority actions for Dr Grays Hospital, Elgin (DGH) with NHS Grampian:

I. Reinstating elective caesarean sections

II. Increasing number booked for delivery at CMU to 35% of total bookings (currently 25%)

III. Reducing unnecessary transfers to AMH by reviewing reasons for maternal transfer.

IV. Increasing antenatal care delivered at DGH by reviewing what specialist antenatal/postnatal services currently provided in Aberdeen Maternity Hospital (AMH) can be delivered locally.

V. Working with NHS Highland to increase capacity in Raigmore to allow more women from Moray to receive care there in addition to the emergency transfers which have already been agreed.

VI. Working to improve historically poor experience of trainees in O&G/Paeds at DGH.

6. The current service provision has been predicated on the unavailability of paediatric cover and this is the primary reason for the temporary service change.

7. It should be acknowledged that the group had a limited timetable for completing the work and therefore were not able to follow up some suggestions to gain a deeper insight into particular options. In particular there was not sufficient time to discuss current experience and views on future plans with clinicians in the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

8. Before the priority actions are considered, below, the group would like to thank all the NHS Grampian and NHS Highland staff and service users with whom the advisory group engaged for their time and their honesty in discussing a wide range of aspects of the current situation; this was wholly appreciated by the advisory group. Our group listened to and considered all the views expressed and there were many similar themes emerged. These are outlined below.