Committee
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee 11 September 2024
11 Sep 2024 · S6 · Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Item of business
New Petitions
Specialist Neonatal Units (Centralisation) (PE2099)
That is right; I recall it now. Welcome to you both. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to stop the planned downgrading of established and high-performing specialist neonatal intensive care services across NHS Scotland from level 3 to level 2 and to commission an independent review of that decision in light of contradictory expert opinions on centralising services. Neonatal units operate at three different levels: level 1 units provide special care, for example tube-feeding and intravenous antibiotic therapy; level 2 units provide specialised and high-dependency care, including assisted ventilation and short-term neonatal intensive care; and level 3 units provide the full range of medical neonatal medical care. Following a review of maternity and neonatal services, the Scottish Government published a report entitled “The Best Start: A Five-year Forward Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care in Scotland”, which recommended that a new model of neonatal services should be designed to accommodate the current levels of demand, with a smaller number of intensive care neonatal units. The British Association of Perinatal Medicine’s framework recommends that neonatal intensive care units should admit at least 100 very low-birthweight babies a year and undertake at least 2,000 intensive care days per year. The perinatal group recommended the retention of three NICUs and that the remaining units be downgraded to level 2 neonatal units. As part of that change, the scope of the practice carried out by level 2 units will be wider than the previous level 2 definition. The Scottish Government accepted the recommendations of the report, and work is under way to implement the new model of care. The Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health’s response to the petition states that the intention with the new model of care is that mothers in suspected extreme pre-term labour will be transferred before they give birth to maternity units in the hospitals that have neonatal intensive care units. The submission states that those units will have expanded capacity. It is noted that it will not always be possible to transfer mothers before they give birth, and in those cases the specialist neonatal transfer service, ScotSTAR, will transfer those babies in specialist ambulances. The submission states that consultation will take place with families during the implementation phase. I should say that Monica Lennon has joined us for this petition as well—I neglected to mention her earlier, as she was already sitting at the table. I invite Jackie Baillie to make some comments.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Con
For our next petition, which was lodged by Lynne McRitchie, we are joined by a galaxy of talent—Laughter. Mr Ewing, please. Lynne McRitchie is not with us t...
Richard Leonard (Central Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
I have been once before in relation to the treatment of young footballers.
The Convener
Con
That is right; I recall it now. Welcome to you both. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to stop the planned downg...
Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab)
Lab
Thank you, convener. I do not know whether the collective noun is a suite of MSPs. I thought of a posse of MSPs, but I like your description even better: a g...
The Convener
Con
Thank you, Jackie Baillie. I should say that we, too, welcome Alfie. The tones of the committee members were soporific and he was very quiet earlier, but I n...
Jackie Baillie
Lab
They were sounds of approval, convener.
The Convener
Con
We have a few minutes each for Monica Lennon and Richard Leonard to speak. We have a fixed amount of time, so please be mindful of that.
Monica Lennon
Lab
Thank you, convener. I appreciate that this is my second appearance at the committee this morning. I will reinforce Jackie Baillie’s comments about safety. ...
The Convener
Con
I encourage you to sum up now.
Monica Lennon
Lab
In conclusion, we fear that, if the issue is left in the hands of the Government, with its flawed data and lack of meaningful consultation, we will have a ve...
The Convener
Con
Thank you. I am interested to hear whether Richard Leonard passes the Alfie test, because he was very quiet during Monica Lennon’s evidence on this occasion....
Richard Leonard
Lab
I will get straight into the points that I want to raise. First, the recommendations that led to the proposals to downgrade Wishaw neonatal unit have not bee...
The Convener
Con
Thank you. I have been enjoying and reflecting on the evidence that has been given by the three of you. At the risk of creating panic among the clerks and my...
David Torrance
SNP
I agree with your comments. Could the committee write to the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health to ask whether clinicians and staff at neonatal in...
The Convener
Con
I also suggest that we invite the relevant members who have been involved in the petition to accompany us on our visit. We could liaise with them about peopl...
The Convener
Con
Thank you. I hope that we can don something with this petition and make some progress on if. We can speak again in an effort to progress that. That brings u...