Search

This article is the first in a series which describes maternity services in Scotland. Although part of the UK, culturally and geographically Scotland is very different and this is reflected in the way health and maternity services are planned, organised and delivered. Scotland has a mainland area of 28,269 square miles (73,217 square kilometres); including inhabited islands, it has an overall area of 30,418 square miles with a population of five million. In contrast the total area of Wales is 20,768 square kilometres (8019 square miles) with a population of 3 million and Northern Ireland is 5,240 square miles in size and has a population of 1.69 million. England meanwhile, is 93,000 square miles in size with a population of 58 million people. So, although Scotland is 25% the size of England it only has 8.5% of the population. Not surprisingly, remote and rural health and maternity care figure greatly on the Scottish Executive Health Department agenda and a Remote and Rural Resource Initiative is in place to address specific remote and rural health care issues.