Remote and Rural Healthcare
Inside Health
BBC
4.4 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 22 January 2020
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nigel Edwards, Chief Executive of the health think tank the Nuffield Trust, joins Dr Margaret McCartney for this special programme about the challenges of remote and rural healthcare. Margaret travels by boat from Mallaig to the Hebridean islands of Eigg, Muck, Rum and Canna off the north west coast of Scotland where, after 100 years the islanders lost their resident doctor. When it was clear there wouldn't be a replacement, the islanders and NHS Highland instead opted for a radical new healthcare model. Taking inspiration from indigenous tribes in Alaska, the NUKA model has been adapted for the Small Isles and it is very different, with a high level of community engagement. The idea is that local people own their own healthcare rather than having healthcare delivered to them, as passive recipients. Local people are trained up in first aid and become salaried Rural Health and Social Care Workers. They are the eyes and ears of healthcare professionals. Volunteers also act as First Responders coordinating helicopter and lifeboat rescues in emergencies. Dr Margaret McCartney joins GP Dr Geoff Boyes on his weekly visit to Eigg and discovers how the community has adapted to this new way of delivering care. She hears from Gill McVicar, former NHS Highland Director of Transformation and Camille Dressler, chair of the Small Isles Community Council, about how the reorganisation was managed; from Julie McFadzean about the new health and rural health and social care worker role; from Sheena Kean, the Eigg healthcare practice manager who makes sure everything runs smoothly and to Eigg residents about how they think their new healthcare model is working.
Producer: Fiona Hill Credit Photo of Margaret McCartney: Paul Clarke
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, |
| 0:05.4 | The Traitors Uncloaked. But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's |
| 0:10.6 | Saturday bonus episodes, the Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Ryland, and comedy specials |
| 0:16.2 | from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffel and Rommas Shranger Nathan. However, and maybe I'm biased, it's really all about the traitors uncloked. |
| 0:24.3 | So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.5 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:34.3 | Hello and a big welcome to Inside Health. |
| 0:37.4 | Today we are getting out of the studio, off the beaten |
| 0:40.1 | track and onto a boat, examining what healthcare looks like when help isn't on our doorstep. |
| 0:46.3 | I work in an urban practice with the security of a hospital down the road in Glasgow and a team |
| 0:51.6 | of district and practice nurses who share the work. |
| 0:54.7 | But millions of people in the UK live in the countryside out of major towns and cities, |
| 0:59.5 | where emergencies can mean the need for a helicopter or a lifeboat, |
| 1:03.1 | and routine hospital appointments can mean a three-day trip. |
| 1:06.5 | In this programme, I'll be reporting from the Isle of Egg and the Inner Hebrides, |
| 1:10.4 | one of the small isles of the west coast of Scotland, where some radical ideas based on practice from Indigenous tribes in Alaska are being used to deliver healthcare. |
| 1:20.0 | Nigel Edwards, the chief executive of the health think tank, the Nuffield Trust, has looked at how remote and rural communities can be sure of having a health service |
| 1:28.1 | capable of caring for them and he's joining me for this programme. Nigel, what particular |
| 1:33.8 | issues arise when we're talking about remote and rural areas? Is it just travel time or are |
| 1:39.4 | there other things at play? There's a number of things in play. First of all, it's more expensive |
| 1:43.2 | to provide healthcare in rural areas and in England England at least, that extra cost isn't really |
| 1:47.7 | recognised in the way that money is allocated. The second is across Europe, and in fact, |
... |
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