South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth has urged local people to take part in a consultation on the future of maternity services in Wigtownshire.

Two options are being considered – the current arrangement which provides only for low-risk home births and a second option which would include a return to pre-planned births at Galloway Community Hospital, again, for low risk births.

A consultation is now planned on the two options.

Colin Smyth said: “In 2018, the maternity unit at the Galloway Community Hospital in Stranraer was shut.

“We were told that it was a temporary because of a shortage of midwives and since then, women have been forced to travel to Dumfries to give birth.

“I am urging local people to try and take part in the consultation if they can, it’s very important that everyone who has an opinion is able to give it.

“The option to restart some in-hospital births at Galloway Community Hospital would certainly be a step forward but I’d like that to be just the beginning.

“People in Wigtownshire deserve to be treated no differently to those in other areas, often with far smaller population, which have community maternity units.

“We should not have a situation where more births from Wigtownshire families take place in Dumfries than has to be the case.

“It’s nearly five years since in-hospital births ended at the Galloway and the fact the Scottish Government hasn’t developed a proper strategy in that time to increase the number of midwifes we train, when we actually have a University campus in the region that teaches nursing and midwifery, really does show what a mess NHS workforce planning is in.”