Meeting of the Parliament 20 September 2023
The Scottish Government’s amendment rightly congratulates the team at Wishaw university hospital on being named UK neonatal team of the year 2023. It is a wonderful achievement and one that we should all celebrate, but we are in a ridiculous situation in which the Government is praising Wishaw’s neonatal unit in one breath and downgrading it in another. We need the Government to make sense. For the parents, families and healthcare professionals who know the unit inside out, the decision is absurd, out of touch and dangerous.
The Scottish Government will be making a terrible mistake if it allows the neonatal unit at Wishaw to be downgraded. The petition against the plans that has been spearheaded by Lanarkshire mum Lynne McRitchie has already been signed by more than 12,000 people. The widespread community outrage and worry is unsurprising, as Wishaw’s neonatal team are like a second family for so many in our communities.
I thank everyone who has signed the petition and I pay tribute to Lynne McRitchie, who is in the public gallery. We are also joined by Angela Tierney from Blantyre, who told me that the care that the neonatal team provides to babies, including her son Olly, is provided as if the babies were their own children—care is provided with love, compassion and enormous skill. When Angela gave birth to Olly, she was extremely ill and, like Stephanie Griffin, she could not be moved. Olly received excellent care at Wishaw hospital but, sadly, he died. He was only five days old. The memories that Angela, her husband Barry and their family were able to make in their community with Olly will stay with them for ever.
Under the Government plans, Olly would have been transferred from Wishaw and separated from his extremely ill mother, and the Tierney family would have been robbed of precious time with their Olly. The minister and every MSP should think about Olly when we vote tonight. Olly is not a statistic; he was and is a precious member of a loving family and community that continues to fundraise for team Ollybear Blantyre, raising vital funds for Wishaw’s neonatal unit in his memory.
I am so disappointed by the letter that I received from the minister last week in response to our request for a pause and a rethink. Jenni Minto attempts to justify the downgrade by saying,
“This will affect a very small number of families in Lanarkshire.”
She should tell that to the Tierneys, the McRitchies and the Griffins. As we heard from Rosa’s dad—my brilliant colleague Mark Griffin—it is a life-saving unit, and the minister would do well to listen properly to families. I and my colleagues have listened. Members should listen to Lynne McRitchie, who believes that her son Innes would not be alive today if he had been transferred to Glasgow, Edinburgh or Aberdeen. Innes is thriving today, thanks in large part to Wishaw’s neonatal team.
We have heard from Jackie Baillie that the Government’s downgrading plans are having an impact now. Several nurse recruits who had accepted job offers have withdrawn following the publication of the appraisal report in July. NHS Lanarkshire needs support with recruitment and retention, especially in the aftermath of the board’s code black status, but the plans will undermine that.
Do ministers really intend to separate families at a critical and traumatic time? How can the Government claim to be tackling inequality when it is downgrading a vital neonatal unit in one of Scotland’s largest and most deprived health boards? The strength and scale of the community reaction to the proposal should give the Government pause for consideration on whether it really represents the best start. The Government has not properly included families or staff in Lanarkshire. However, it is not too late. It should start listening, fix this flawed process and stop the downgrade of Wishaw’s neonatal unit.
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