 Maternity services in Argyll and Clyde face changes |
A parliamentary inquiry is being demanded into measures which one MSP believes are driving a "march towards centralisation" in the health service. Labour's Duncan McNeil wants Holyrood's health committee to investigate the impact of new regulations covering junior doctors' hours.
He believes that they are among the reasons why maternity services are set to be reduced in his constituency.
Argyll and Clyde NHS Board has decided to concentrate consultant-led services at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley.
The Rankin Unit at Greenock's Inverclyde Royal Hospital - which currently provides a full service - will be left with a midwife-led service.
Mr McNeil, who represents Greenock and Inverclyde, was among those campaigning against the move.
 |  I think that we do need to look seriously at how measures such as this will impact on the wider aspects of patient care and service delivery  |
He is pressing for Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm to reject the NHS board's plans. The MSP has already lodged a motion in the Scottish Parliament condemning the "march towards centralisation".
He has now written to his colleagues on the health committee seeking an inquiry.
Mr McNeil said the deal on junior doctors' hours, which becomes legally enforceable on Friday, had been motivated by good intentions.
But he said: "I think that we do need to look seriously at how measures such as this will impact on the wider aspects of patient care and service delivery."
He said a shortage of junior clinicians had created a "massive pressure" to centralise maternity services in Argyll and Clyde.
Likely impact
The MSP warned that the deal, along with the European Working Time Directive, could be "disastrous" for the NHS unless proper plans were in place.
"That is why I have written to my colleagues on the health committee arguing that, as this is an issue which affects every constituency in Scotland, we conduct an inquiry into the likely impact of these changes and what has to be done to minimise it," he said.
"This would also give us the opportunity to look at some of the other pressures which are leading to NHS centralisation, such as specialisation by clinicians and how the NHS trains and professionally develops its staff."
Scottish Tory health spokesman David Davidson voiced his support for Mr McNeil's attacks on centralisation. "I predict that he will not be the last Labour backbencher to have the courage to stand up for his constituents, who get a very raw deal from this Scottish government.
"Mr McNeil has hit the nail on the head in identifying the problems, not just with maternity services, but with the NHS in general.
"The NHS in Scotland is failing because it is a bureaucratic, centralised and unresponsive monopoly.
"It misallocates resources and fails to respond to the real needs of patients."
More consultants
Scottish National Party health spokeswoman Shona Robison said that changes in the way maternity services were delivered had to be made for the right reasons.
"It should not just be because we have a shortage of consultants," she said.
"That is an issue that has to be addressed by trying to attract more consultants to come to Scotland."
 A parliamentary committee will be asked to look at the issues |
Scottish Socialist Party health spokeswoman Carolyn Leckie said she agreed with the principle of midwife-led care. "However, the introduction of midwife-only units as a replacement for maternity hospitals with all the back-up that they have is inadequate.
"That masks the real agenda, which is to reduce services.
"Instead of taking advantage of a falling birth rate to increase the midwife/client ratio they are going to continue with inadequate staffing levels which are driving midwives to distraction and impacting on the quality of care for women."
A Scottish Executive spokeswoman said a support group had been set up to help NHS boards with the implementation of the new regulations governing doctors' hours.
"The group is currently gathering information about which boards are compliant and, where they are not, why.
Training doctors
"The group is also working with NHS boards in Scotland to help them look at solutions for ensuring that all posts become compliant as soon as possible."
Ministers have also promised to train 375 more junior doctors by 2004.
The spokeswoman also rejected suggestions that maternity services were being centralised.
She said the opposite was actually the case, as women were being given access to midwife-led units close to where they lived.
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