The Scottish Government has just issued its first National Islands Plan, setting out a range of measures to improve the quality for people living in the country’s island communities.
And, in a section on health, social care and wellbeing, the plan recognises that permanent and rotating island GPs and community nurses “require different skills from those working in more urban settings” – a fact that’s key to much of the work of the Scottish Rural Medicine Collaborative (SRMC).
The plan points out that “the Scottish Government recognises that remote, rural and island communities face distinct challenges in delivering primary care services, particularly in recruiting and retaining clinicians, and in ensuring sustainable service delivery”.
It also alludes to the Remote and Rural General Practice Working Group, of which the SMRC is a member, set up by the Scottish Government in June 2018 under the chairmanship of Sir Lewis Ritchie.
The working group provides advice and develops recommendations on ways to ensure that the views of clinicians and communities in some of the country’s more isolated communities are better recognised in primary care development.
The islands plan points out that the working group supports a range of initiatives, including one in which the SRMC is heavily involved: Rediscover the Joy of General Practice, a programme designed to attract GPs to work across communities in Orkney, Shetland, Highland and Western Isles.
The plan also reports that the working group is considering opportunities to develop a national centre for excellence in remote and rural health and social care – something that the SRMC featured in its February 2019 newsletter.
SRMC programme manager Marine Scott said: “With the continued support of the Scottish Government (see our December 2019 newsletter) we remain steadfast in our determination to ensure that primary healthcare in our island communities has a healthy future.
“We welcome the fact that the country’s first National Islands Plan recognises many of the issues the SRMC is working hard to address.”
The publication of the islands plan follows an extensive consultation which included 61 events and meetings on 40 islands across Scotland and attended by almost 1,000 people of all ages and backgrounds. The online consultation received a further 400 responses.