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30th May 2006

Decision On Closure Threatened Maternity Units Delayed

Stewart Whyte, Conservative candidate for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, revealed that the final local decision on the future of closure-threatened maternity units in Aberdeenshire has been put back until August.

Mr Whyte, at their request, met with Jack Stuart, Head of Aberdeenshire Community Health Partnership, Dr Martin McCrone, clinical leader of South Aberdeenshire Local Community Health Partnership and Fiona Francey, manager of the South Aberdeenshire LCHP at the Banchory Practise at 6pm (Monday 25/05/06). The meeting lasted two hours with Mr Whyte explaining the case for keeping the Aboyne Maternity Unit open and the Partnership explaining why they believed it should be closed.

Mr Whyte said: "It was a good meeting, conducted in a mutually respectful spirit of reasoned discussion and debate. In the end we still disagreed but I am grateful that they took the time to clarify their position and that, at this eleventh hour, they were prepared to engage with the views of the Deeside community."

One new piece of information did come out of the meeting and that was that Scottish Health Council has asked for more information on the CHP's consultation and that consequently the SHC have moved their announcement on the soundness of that consultation from its original June date to July. If the SHC ratifies the consultation process then the final local decision will be taken by the Grampian NHS Board at their August meeting. The decision to close maternity units in Aberdeenshire will then go to the Scottish Executive and either be approved or rejected by the Health Minister Andy Kerr.

Mr Whyte: "The Save Aboyne Maternity group have strongly argued that the consultation was flawed and the decision to ask for more information suggests that the SHC believe that their is at least a case to answer. However I feel duty bound not to raise false hopes, at tonight's meeting the CHP were confident that the SHC would ratify their processes. My personal belief is that the final decision will come down to politics and that the ultimate decision will rest with the Scottish Executive.

In that case I think that we are likely to see a political manouevre that will see the final decision put off until after the Scottish Parliament Election in May next year. We don't have to look far for a precedent, the decision on the route for the Aberdeen Bypass was repeatedly delayed until after last year's General Election. With the result that it was not a major issue in the campaign.

I suspect that they will try the same trick again. However the depth of feelings are so strong and the case for keeping Aboyne Maternity Unit open so powerful that I don't think they will manage to spin this issue into the long grass."