Volume 1

Scottish hospitals survey.

Date:
1946
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Scottish hospitals survey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [A General Introduction to the Regional Reports ts printed as a separate document} PART I Geography and Population Distribution of the Region : Statistics 1. The Northern Region includes the Burgh of Inverness and the Counties of Inverness, Ross and Cromarty, Sutherland and Caithness. The region is an extensive one representing over one-third of the land surface of Scotland and it has a sparse widely scattered population. Geographically it may be divided into three areas, namely, a low lying fringe under 300 feet on the east coast, which includes a narrow strip of Inverness-shire, the Black Isle and a further portion of Ross and Cromarty north of Cromarty Firth, and the north- eastern half of Caithness. In the centre there is the extensive mountainous area and in the west are the Islands, the largest of which are Skye, Lewis and Harris, North and South Uist, and Benbecula. 2. The population of the region which for the year 1938 was estimated at - 185,223 is much less than that of the North-eastern and Eastern Regions, namely, 496,342 and 399,532 respectively. There is only one burgh of any size in the region, Inverness, with a population of 23,316 ; Wick, which comes next in size, has a population of approximately 7,500. On the eastern fringe the main centres of population outside Inverness and Wick are Dingwall, Invergordon, Tain, Golspie, Cromarty, Beauly, Brora and Dornoch, in order of size. On the north coast the largest centres are Thurso with a population of about 3,000 and Tongue with a population of over 1,000. There is no town in the central portion of the region. On the western sea-board the largest town is Fort William, with a population of about 3,000. Farther north are Mallaig and Kyle of Lochalsh, both with populations under 1,000. In Skye there was a population, last census, of 9,908; the two largest centres are Portree and Broadford, the former having a population approximating 3,000. The outer Hebrides have an estimated population of 38,990; the largest centre being Stornoway, which has a population of about 4,500. 3. The geographical character of the Northern Region with its thinly dis- persed population and widely separated centres, and its unusual economic and traffic features, presents a special problem in relation to hospital and medical services. Transport in the region, which has to be viewed in relation to the conveyance of patients and to the availability of specialist services, may be by rail, by road, by water, or by air. In winter special traffic difficulties arise from storms and snowdrifts. In the greater part of the region the trend for central hospital purposes and for specialist services is to the Royal Northern Hospital, Inverness. Each year a number of patients for special or personal reasons go to hospitals in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. From the eastern part of the region there is a certain trend, less marked than formerly, to the Royal Infirmary, Aberdeen. The north has a long-standing association with Edinburgh. The most marked local trend, however, is from the Western Isles to the hospitals and specialists of Glasgow: the islands have long been served by ships from the Clyde, and their people have close personal and com- mercial ties with Glasgow, with which they have also been linked for nearly, ten years by an efficient air service ; their medical practitioners are loud in their insistence that this association should be preserved in the medical services. This feeling, so far as it reflects the interests of the patients, should be respected,