SCOTTISH ministers have been urged to put families first following their decision to downgrade neonatal intensive care units (NICU) in Tayside and Fife.
In July last year, the Scottish Government pressed ahead with plans to centralise specialist services by reducing the number of NICUs from eight to three.
Units in Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, and Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy will be downgraded to level 2 neonatal units. The most premature and sickest babies will be transferred to upgraded units at hospitals in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
The decision was made seven years after the Scottish Government published a five-year model for maternity care.
Today at Holyrood, ministers were told mums and families already face a “harrowing time” if babies are taken in to specialist care.
North East Scottish Conservative MSP Maurice Golden said: “There was little, if any, mention in the report of the potential impact on the mental wellbeing of families forced to travel far from their home, during what is already a harrowing time for them. It is unacceptable.
“So does the Minister agree there should be a fuller assessment before taking any action?
Fife MSP Willie Rennie also asked the minister’s judgement on whether “ever greater centralisation leads to de-skilling in regional facilities.”
SNP minister Jenni Minto said implementation is now with “regional clinical leads” and acknowledged “the traumatic time it must be for new parents in these circumstances.”
But she said the changes were happening because advice from clinicians “shows that the most pre-term and sickest babies have a better chance of survival when they are cared for in high-volume specialist neonatal units.”
She added: “Local neonatal units will continue to deliver care to babies who need it, including a level of intensive care, and those changes will only affect a small number of the smallest and sickest babies.”
Mr Golden said later: “The long-term drag of these reports, seven years after a decision has effectively been set in stone, will no doubt have had an impact on keeping people informed about what’s happening.
“These are well-used units, which are vital to neonatal care. To experts, it may just be a statistical subset of premature and sick babies who have to travel from Dundee to Aberdeen or Glasgow – but that will be small comfort to the families involved.”
