Ludlow maternity unit closes due to staff sickness
A fourth town maternity unit has been hit by temporary closure. Ludlow Hospital's midwife-led unit was to close for 24 hours today due to staff sickness, following closures at Bridgnorth and Oswestry.
The unit will be closed during the same time that Royal Shrewsbury Hospital's midwife-led unit at the Copthorne Building is closed for refurbishing work.
Services at Ludlow were to be suspended from 8am today until 8am tomorrow.
Sarah Jamieson, head of midwifery Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust said: "Unfortunately due to unexpected staff sickness we will be temporarily suspending services at Ludlow midwife-led unit. We are contacting women who have chosen to deliver at Ludlow and who are due to give birth in the near future to inform them and offer an alternative location to give birth if they go into labour whilst services are suspended.
"Community antenatal and postnatal appointments in Ludlow will still take place as planned during the day and women have been contacted about the arrangements for these. I would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may cause," she said.
The temporary closure follows one at Bridgnorth Hospital's unit from 8pm on Thursday to 8am on Friday, and at Oswestry between 8pm on February 10 and 8am on February 11. Those suspensions were also said to be due to unexpected staff sickness, and high activity within the consultant-led unit at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.
Also this weekend, mums-to-be will not be able to give birth at the midwife-led unit at Shrewsbury as it will be closed for essential maintenance work from 5pm yesterday until 8pm on Sunday.
It is the latest in a string of closures to the county's maternity units because of staffing issues. The problems affected Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury midwife-led units on Christmas Day, Oswestry's midwife-led unit on December 29 and January 9, and Ludlow's midwife-led unit on December 31 and January 5.
There are campaign groups to safeguard the future of Shropshire's more rural maternity units in Bridgnorth, Ludlow and Oswestry, which took previous closures as a worrying sign for the unit's sustainability, especially as all three were earmarked to be turned into "birthing centres", which would see them close overnight.
Shropshire CCG has agreed continued funding for the units for the next two years but only if a current review into maternity services agrees.
