Press and Journal: MATERNITY UNIT CAMPAIGNERS GATHER TO DELIVER PROTESTCampaigners fighting the threatened downgrading of the maternity unit at Wick held a public demonstration in Inverness at the weekend.
About 60 protesters with placards gathered outside Raigmore Hospital to voice their opposition to any downgrading of the 11-bed unit.
Among them were members of the People Before Profits group, led by the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), which is campaigning against the sale of Raigmore Hospital's publicly owned magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI) scanner to a private company...
SSP spokesman Steve Arnott, who has been campaigning against Raigmore's decision to sell the MRI scanner to a private company and then lease it back again, said it was important that the two issues were fought simultaneously.
Speaking at Saturday's protest, he said: "It is important that we unite on these two campaigns. We are hoping the message gets across that people are not happy about some of the decisions."
NHS Highland intends to sell the £1.3million magnetic resonance-imaging scanner and a sterilisation unit as part of radical moves to balance its books - before leasing it back to counter a £400,000 budget shortfall.
The SSP claims leasing it back will actually increase the cost to the health board by several thousand pounds a year.
