RARARI working with the CNO will model and test the expected outcomes from the Framework for Maternity services and the subsequent EGAM’s report in the rural healthcare setting. This will involve working with rural maternity teams on a pilot basis and disseminating lessons learned. This work is intended to complement the ongoing work within the acute maternity sector and will have a project board that links all activities. Within this project we also hope to develop a learning module for non-obstetric staff that will raise their awareness of obstetric care issues and inform them of the need to involve specialist staff.

Working again with the CNO’s office we will also invest in a better understanding of the activities that make up rural healthcare in the community. We intend to commission “Skills for Health” to produce a high level functional map of remote and rural health care. This map will inform us of the activities that currently comprise remote and rural community health care and will draw out from this the competencies required to work in these areas. Clearly this work is very necessary if we are to plan our workforce of the future.

Within the high level work on rural health care mapping we will also commission a detailed functional map of “Unplanned/emergency care”. It is intended that this map will bridge from the community into the acute setting and again inform our workforce planning. This will be of particular importance as we address the issues of emergency care surrounding the GMS contract.

In “Future Practice” Professor Temple requested that the smaller hospitals in the highlands and island looked closely at the services they provide and drew up clear definitions of locally delivered services that were quality assured. RARARI will continue to work with the Health Boards in these areas to assist in service reviews and developing new models of service.