Staff 'back Shropshire maternity units closing at night'

The idea that three midwife-led units at Bridgnorth, Oswestry, and Ludlow, become 'birthing centres', has been recommended as part of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust's (SATH) operational plan which has gone before the body's governing board.

A decision will be made on the units later this year after a review being led by Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

Campaigners fighting cuts to maternity units said they would resist the move, which they see as a downgrading of services.

It comes after hundreds of people marched in Oswestry and Bridgnorth last month in support of the units.

The SATH report, compiled by finance director Neil Nisbet, says that the number of women using the units has fallen in recent years.

It states: "In line with national trends, the number of women choosing to have their babies, and those able to have their babies, in midwife-led units has reduced.

"At booking, in the last two years, 90 per cent of women chose to have their baby on one of the trust's acute hospital sites."

The report states that during 2015 and 2016, on average only one third of the nine per cent of woman intending to have their baby at a midwife-led unit was able to do so.

It states: "The vast majority of these women are transferred into the consultant unit ante-natally or during labour.

"Workshops with staff across the professions delivering the service, have concluded that the care should be redesigned with the non-acute midwife-led units moving to a birthing centre model, where the midwife follows the woman, rather than being based in the unit 24/7.

"This would mean that the midwife-led units in Bridgnorth, Ludlow and Oswestry would not provide an overnight service, apart from for women in labour."

Liz Grayston, who has led the Oswestry campaign against cuts or closure of the town's maternity unit, said: "It's great news that these units are going to stay open but no matter what they say, it is a downgrade."