Moray Maternity Services Review: report

4 Evidence Gathering and Assessment of Models

The Review Group initially considered the substantial volume of materials provided by NHS Grampian, and then carried out extensive evidence gathering sessions with stakeholders, either virtually (utilising the widely used MS Teams platform), or by undertaking a series of face-to-face discussions during a two-day visit to Elgin in early July 2021^[9].

The outputs of all of these sessions have been synthesised by Service Design Hub staff who worked closely with colleagues in the Programme Management Team from the Strategy, Performance and Service Transformation Strategic Business Unit in NSS to support the Review.

The Review Group have undertaken extensive review and evaluation of the findings and evidence gathered, and have ensured that the  Scottish Approach to Service Design (SAtSD) has informed its work throughout the process. This approach^[10] is based on "User Research", which is a methodology that connects the people designing a service with the people who use it.

Furthermore, to provide equitable opportunities to all those individuals and groups who wished to voice their views, members of the Review Group also made themselves available for additional evidence gathering sessions, which stretched the timeframes beyond those originally planned for the Review. The Group felt, however, it was important to hear all viewpoints of those willing to contribute to the Review.

Where it was not possible for the contributors to attend a face-to-face session with Review Group members, or if this was preferred, individuals and groups were invited to contribute to the Review by submitting a written statement of their experience of Maternity Services in Moray via the dedicated email mailbox: NSS.MorayMatReviewEnquiries@nhs.scot

Following extensive review of all the evidence gathered, as well as consideration of professional opinion and policy direction, the Review Group defined a number of possible models they felt should be considered.