Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has been urged to virtually meet local parents and mothers-to-be in Moray affected by ongoing issues with maternity services at Dr Gray’s in Elgin.
Moray MP Douglas Ross has written to the SNP Minister asking that she hear directly from those who have had to travel to Aberdeen or Inverness to give birth.
The Health Secretary travelled north in February last year to meet campaigners and staff at Dr Gray’s.
Maternity services at the Elgin hospital have been restricted since July 2018 due to staffing shortages. The removal of a consultant-led service was described as temporary at the time but is still in place nearly three years later.
Mr Ross has previously called on the Health Secretary to outline plans to fully return to a consultant-led service “in detail” following concerns from local campaigners Keep MUM that NHS Grampian had “no intention” of doing so.
Recent bad weather that led to the closure of the A96 has also been cited by campaigners as a reason for the situation to be urgently resolved.
Scottish Conservative MP for Moray Douglas Ross said:
“It is a year since Jeane Freeman travelled north to Elgin to meet with staff at Dr Gray’s and members of the Keep MUM campaign group.
“At the time, the Health Secretary was clear that she had listened to the concerns of campaigners and that there needed to be ‘progress and steps taken’ to address them.
“Of course, we all understand that the Covid pandemic has taken precedence over everything else over the past 11 months.
“However, concerns are growing locally about the future of maternity services at Dr Gray’s. My own office has dealt with numerous complaints from parents who endured long drives to Aberdeen to give birth.
“I think everybody wants to see the full restoration of a consultant-led maternity service at Dr Gray’s.
"After almost three years since the original downgrading, we seem no closer to reaching that point.
“I‘m organising a virtual meeting which I have invited the Health Secretary to so we can ensure local voices are heard. Constituents who have contacted me want to see action and with health fully devolved to the Scottish Government, it’s up to them to sort this.
"This meeting could help to restore some confidence in people locally that this will actually happen.”