Meeting of the Parliament 30 April 2025
I thank Jackie Baillie for her intervention; I know that she has had conversations with the cabinet secretary in that regard, and he has made it clear that the evidence that we had on the number of babies who require intensive neonatal treatment said that three was the correct number.
In this debate, we are touching on babies who are the sickest and most vulnerable, and who need the most specialist care. Those babies will benefit most from clinicians who know about that care: those who, through the frequency of caring for such babies, have specialised in such care and have an additional layer of familiarity and expertise.
Following the announcement in July 2023, we asked regional chief executives to plan for the national model to be implemented locally, with national monitoring of implementation being co-ordinated by the Scottish Government. We commissioned independent modelling work to fully map the capacity requirements across the system to support planning that was under way, and that report was published in May last year.
Since the announcement of the new model, implementation groups have been established in each region, with representation from each health board, relevant clinical groups, partners and service users. Each group now has in place a regional implementation plan that outlines local work, both planned and under way, to deliver the new model of care. Safety for the babies, families and staff is our utmost priority, which is why we have taken a phased approach to transition, allowing time to build the right levels of capacity in all areas, with NHS boards working towards full implementation by 2026.