SNP COUNCILLORS HAVE welcomed the unanimous support given at the policy and resources committee on Tuesday for their motion in support of action on Dr Gray’s Paediatrics ward.
A motion was put forward by the main opposition group’s co-leader, Councillor Shona Morrison, and seconded by Buckie’s SNP representative Councillor Sonya Warren.
During the meeting the Council Leader, George Alexander, indicated that he had already written to NHS Grampian in the terms put forward by the SNP group. That was expressing a desire of the Council to work with NHS Grampian and other agencies to resolve ‘joint recruitment difficulties’.
Councillor Morrison welcomed the commitment to finding innovative recruitment solutions for public services in Moray: “As we are all aware, the ongoing issue surrounding the recruitment of junior doctors by NHS Grampian resulted with the temporary closure of Dr Gray’s paediatric unit to overnight patients earlier this month.
“Having personally benefitted on more than one occasion from the excellent care provided by ward two, I am all too aware of the impact such measures will have on families throughout Moray.
“The well documented recruitment challenges in Moray are of course not peculiar to health care and pose considerable difficulties to many areas within the public sector. I hope that this unified response will go some way to ensuring that we, as a Council, do all that we can to support and assist the staff of NHS Grampian in resolving its current recruitment difficulties.”
Councillor Warren added: “The challenges of recruiting teachers, medical professionals and, indeed, other skilled workers in both the public and private sector across the north and north east of Scotland are well publicised.
“One of the big reasons for this challenge is not necessarily a lack of people able to do these jobs but a lack of people willing to move to Moray, Aberdeenshire and Highland areas.
“We need to work together with our public sector partners and with the private sector to market Moray in new and innovative ways as a fantastic place to live and work if we are going to fill these gaps in our workforce.”