Eight years on, Moray mothers deserve more than another missed deadline

Baby Braeson arrived safely, and that is the most important thing. His mum, Hannah Smith, has nothing but praise for the paramedics who delivered him in the back of an ambulance just off the A96. But the fact that his birth happened there at all should trouble anyone who cares about how Scotland looks after women and babies.

Hannah lives in Buckie, less than half an hour from Dr Gray's Hospital in Elgin. Because her pregnancy carried a higher risk, she was told to give birth in Aberdeen – around 60 miles and well over an hour and a half away. She did not make it.

A temporary fix that became permanent

When consultant-led maternity care at Dr Gray's was downgraded to a midwife-led unit in 2018, it was presented as a response to staff shortages. Eight years later, an entire generation of Moray children has been born either in Aberdeen, in Inverness, or – in cases like Braeson's – somewhere in between.

NHS Grampian set itself a target of restoring full services by the end of this year. That target has now slipped, with the health board conceding it was "ambitious" and promising delivery "as soon as is safely possible" next year.

Nobody wants services restored before they are safe. The clinical case for sending higher-risk births to a unit with consultants and neonatal support on hand is real, and NHS Grampian is right to say that for some women Aberdeen is the safest place to give birth. But "safely possible" cannot be allowed to become a phrase that means "eventually".

Distance is a clinical risk too

The problem with centralising care is that the journey itself carries risk. A long drive in labour, an ambulance transfer on a rural trunk road in the dark, an anxious family following behind – these are not minor inconveniences. They are part of the clinical picture, and they fall hardest on families who live furthest away.

Hannah's own words should be heard in St Andrew's House: she feels maternity care in the north-east is being "pushed further and further down the list". That is not an unreasonable conclusion for a community that has watched deadline after deadline come and go.

What the national review must do

Health secretary Angela Constance has launched an independent review of maternity services across Scotland, chaired by Professor Christine McCourt, and has promised "real and tangible change". That review is welcome. But it must look squarely at rural and remote provision, not simply at the large city units where most births take place.

It should ask how many women in places like Moray are travelling long distances in labour, how many babies are being born before they reach hospital, and what it would take – in staff, in money and in training – to bring safe, consultant-led care back closer to home.

Time for a firm date

Moray families have shown extraordinary patience. What they deserve now is not another warm statement but a firm, public timetable, with the staffing plan behind it published for scrutiny.

Braeson's birth story will be a good one to tell when he is older. It should not become a typical one.