WATCH: First Minister John Swinney accused of ‘condoning’ loss of Highland medical services as patients ‘travel hundreds of miles for treatment’
A Highland MSP has taken the fight to “stop the destruction of local healthcare in the Highlands” to Holyrood by demanding answers from First Minister John Swinney.
Edward Mountain challenged Mr Swinney by asking if he will step-in as “it appears that his cabinet secretary for health and social care is incapable of doing so?”
Earlier, Mr Mountain and MSP Fergus Ewing accused the NHS Highland board of being too afraid to fight to retain local services – with patients suffering as a result.
Both MSPs are concerned that the services once located in the region are now leaking away, forcing many patients to take long journeys for treatment.
That inevitably leads to the sorts of journeys that expectant Caithness mothers have been experiencing since 2016 as they travel to Inverness to give birth.
Mr Mountain underlined that the loss of services is more critical even than the loss of the Inverness and Nairn seat – a reference to Mr Ewing standing as an independent.
“Highlanders have now lost yet another medical specialty from our area,” he said. “Our last vascular surgeon has been forced to leave, as the service has been so downgraded that it is no longer functional or safe.
“His loss can be added to the loss of our only interventional radiologist in the region and of maternity services in Caithness. Those are critical losses – more critical to the Highlands than the inevitable loss to the Scottish National Party of the Inverness and Nairn seat in 2026.
“The First Minister’s Government is condoning a situation in which Highlanders are forced to get into cars and travel hundreds of miles for treatment when they are seriously ill.
“When will he put a stop to the destruction of local healthcare in the Highlands, as it appears that his Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care is incapable of doing so?”
First Minister John Swinney responded saying recruitment was the major problem, adding: “I have absolutely no desire for us not to be able to provide services.”
“There are a number of issues in Mr Mountain’s question that I need to address, because there are a number of different factors at play,” Mr Swinney said.
“The issues in relation to maternity services in Caithness have been addressed in that way because of clinical assessments about the most appropriate way in which services should be delivered.
“I think that the parliament would take a dim view of ministers who ignored clinical assessments of the safety and efficacy of maternity services. We would not be doing anyone a service if we ignored that clinical opinion.
“On other questions, such as the point about vascular surgery, I note that we face challenges in different parts of the country—indeed, this lies at the heart of some of the cancer care issues that I have addressed already—in our ability to recruit clinical leadership to deliver services.
“I have absolutely no desire for us not to be able to provide services of the type that Mr Mountain has raised but, if we struggle to recruit individuals to deliver those services, the government has to address the practical realities of that.
“Finally, the government has invested in establishing a national treatment centre in Inverness, which is delivering thousands of procedures for Highlanders and people from other parts of the country, because of the focus on delivering high-quality healthcare in that environment.
“That is an indication of the Scottish Government’s commitment to the Highlands, which is one of many other commitments that the Government will continue to deliver.”
