Media Release: Inspection reports for Gilbert Bain Hospital, NHS Shetland
Healthcare Improvement Scotland today (Thursday 8 Oct) published two Safe Delivery of Care inspection reports on acute care and maternity services at Gilbert Bain Hospital, NHS Shetland. The inspections took place on 16 and 17 June, 2026.
Speaking of the acute hospital inspection report, Donna Maclean, Chief Inspector, Healthcare Improvement Scotland, said:
“We found staff working hard to deliver kind and respectful care and patients spoke highly of the excellent care they had received and the staff providing it.
“All of the areas we inspected were calm and well led. Staff were visible and easily identifiable and they described a supportive senior management team and said they felt able to escalate issues or concerns.
“Despite the ageing building, the hospital appeared clean, although lacking in storage space.
“We wrote to NHS Shetland in July to highlight concerns and seek further assurance in relation to low compliance with some core mandatory and statutory training including fire safety, paediatric life support and child and adult support and protection.
“In response senior managers advised that Paediatric Immediate Life Support (PILS) will be the target level of resuscitation proficiency for emergency department and acute medical and surgical nursing teams.”
Chief Inspector, Healthcare Improvement Scotland
The Gilbert Bain Hospital acute inspection resulted in eight areas of good practice, three recommendations and 13 requirements.
The maternity inspection of Gilbert Bain Hospital included the maternity unit and Northern Star, a designated area to provide bereavement care.
Donna Maclean said:
“During our maternity services inspection of Gilbert Bain Hospital we found it to be clean, organised and maintained to a high standard.
“Midwives and the obstetric consultant on duty were working well together. Staff were able to demonstrate effective systems were in place to contact other team members if the need should arise during an emergency.
“Women described receiving assistance when needed and interactions between staff and families were seen to be kind, responsive and caring.
“The maternity department is undertaking work to understand and improve culture and morale within the department.”
Chief Inspector, Healthcare Improvement Scotland
Areas for improvement included the need to develop processes that support a consistent approach to helping women make informed decisions about their care. Also establishing and maintaining standardised communication mechanisms between NHS Shetland and other boards to support safe care during neonatal emergencies.
Other areas for improvement included ensuring clinical guidance remains up to date, relevant and supportive of clinical practice, as well as improvements in trauma informed training and bereavement care training.
The maternity services inspection at Gilbert Bain Hospital resulted in nine areas of good practice, two recommendations and 11 requirements.
Improvement action plans have been developed by NHS Shetland to meet the requirements of both inspections.
The full inspection reports are available to view at:
Ends
Notes to editor
These reports are part of Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s programme of inspections and reviews.
Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s statutory role is to help improve the quality of health and care, provide information to the public about the quality of health and care services, monitor public involvement, and to evaluate and provide advice on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of medicines and health technologies.