Closure fear over underused Shropshire maternity units
Maternity units across Shropshire could close unless more women opt to give birth under the care of midwives there, a health chief has warned.
Care consultant Dr Josh Dixey said there was "a very real danger" units in Ludlow, Bridgnorth and Oswestry could be lost if more was not done to promote them to mothers-to-be.
A £54,000 review of maternity services in the county revealed an average of just three babies were born per day across five midwife-led units (MLUs) in Telford, Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, Oswestry and Ludlow from April 2012 to March this year.
The report showed just 20 per cent of births in the county over the 12-month period had taken place in midwife-led units. The majority took place at the consultant-led unit at Shrewsbury, which also houses the county's neonatal intensive care ward.
Dr Dixey said at comparable-sized trusts elsewhere in the country, the figure for births at MLUs was up near the 50 per cent mark and rising.
He added: "Our figure is low, and we feel it may get lower still when the new women and children's unit opens at the Princess Royal in Telford next year.
"We think women will choose to go there because it is a new unit, and so the figure may drop further still. We have got to promote the use of midwife-led units.
"If we don't, there is a very real danger we will lose them because of falling numbers."
The consultant said work needed to be done to identify the "financial sustainability" of the units before any future decisions were made.
But he defended the maternity service on the whole in the county, despite criticism from Rhiannon Davies and Richard Stanton.
The couple, whose daughter Kate died after being born at Ludlow Hospital in 2009, said a report released this month by Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups, prompted in part by the death of their baby, was nothing more than a "PR exercise" to paint the hospitals in the best possible light.
The 207-page document released following a review of maternity services in the region painted a mainly positive picture.
But Dr Dixey said: "The service as a whole appears to be safe.
"We haven't found a huge amount of evidence that mothers and children are getting a bad service, and the feedback on the whole has been very favourable.
"This is a very comprehensive report, produced in a short time period."
