Medical Services - an Update

Representatives from West Ardnamurchan Community Council met with the Scottish Ambulance Service earlier in the week in an attempt to find out what they were doing about our Emergency Responders.  At present, the two remaining responders are carrying the full burden, an unacceptable situation. No-one has applied for the vacant posts.

The SAS has promised to locate some staff from outwith the area to lighten the two ERs' load, and will advertise again for recruits, but WACC is very aware that pressure may need to be put on the Ambulance Service in order to establish a team which will remain viable into the long-term future - and this may require action from the community as a whole.

A comment on a recent blog entry, here, sums up the problem for anyone thinking of moving to the community to take up one of the four available posts: "I would go for it, but you cannot live on that salary alone, especially if you need to move. There should be an idea of another job such as emergency nurse practitioner. But I guess like everywhere funding is the issue."  The community here would do everything possible to help someone move in, as it did when Sam Harding joined the ERs when they were first set up.

Meanwhile, the first doctor and a part-time doctor have now arrived to start work at the Acharacle Practice, so we should be meeting Drs Weir and Cameron in our surgeries this week.  Another doctor who would have taken up a post is, sadly, ill, and won't be available for some time.  We wish her a full and very speedy recovery.

And, yes, it's been a beautiful day here, with a brisk northerly breeze, an occasional hail shower, and some warm sunshine.