Highland Workers Need Action, Not More Rhetoric

2nd February 2024

Roz Foyer, STUC General Secretary writing in The Herald today sums up many problems facing the Highlands and not least NHS Highland cancellations of many projects.

The Highlands and Islands may be celebrated for their beauty, their lush landscapes and scenic hills, but for many workers life is a struggle.

Many of the problems faced across Scotland - lack of services, poor infrastructure, rising housing costs and increasingly precarious employment options - are held in common. However, for workers and communities in the Highlands and Islands, these are exacerbated by the very geography that tourists wonder at.

Like most of Scotland, the Highlands and Islands has low headline unemployment, however, also like the rest of Scotland this disguises a problem of precarious and low-paid work which does not allow households to prosper. The demographic problem of an ageing population and insufficient young workers is at its most marked in this region.

Earlier this week NHS Highland announced a moratorium on all major projects planned for the future. This includes stopping work on a new Highland hospital which has been a promise for more than a generation to the community for over 30 years. The project was to replace the Belford Hospital in Fort William and was slated for opening by 2028.

A planned extension to maternity provision at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness is another casualty of a lack of public finance as are the new Caithness health redesign hubs which were to be built in Thurso and Wick.

Read the full article at The Herald