MP gets assurance Shropshire maternity closures are temporary

Senior leaders from Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital’s NHS Trust said they had a productive meeting with North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson over the situation.

Last month the board of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust agreed to temporarily suspend services at midwife led units in Bridgnorth, Ludlow and Oswestry for between three and six months from 1 July, 2017.

The maternity service has faced a combination of short-term and long-term sickness in recent months, as well as a significant fall in the number of midwives prepared to work overtime or temporary bank shifts to cover for colleagues at times of sickness.

The future of MLUs was one of the key topics discussed at Mr Paterson’s bi-monthly Oswestry Health Group meeting, which was attended by head of midwifery Sarah Jamieson together with Jo Banks, women and children’s care group director, and Julia Clarke, director of corporate governance.

Ms Clarke said: “We had a very productive meeting in which we reaffirmed our support for our MLUs and emphasised that the suspension of services at Bridgnorth, Ludlow and Oswestry is temporary.

“We also emphasised that the temporary suspension of services at our MLUs will not pre-empt the outcome of the midwife-led unit review that our clinical commissioners are carrying out.”

During the meeting, concerns were raised that some of the beds in the MLUs had been removed and were being redeployed around the trust, sparking fears that this meant the MLUs would not reopen.

SaTH says it made it clear that beds were often redeployed around the trust when it is busy. As the beds are not being used for inpatients at the MLUs for at least three months it means that they are being used for other patients elsewhere in the trust.

However, they can be returned at very short notice and their removal does not mean that the MLUs will remain closed after the temporary suspension period has ended.

Sarah said: “We are aware of concerns that some of our MLU beds have been taken from the MLUs to be used elsewhere in the Trust as our hospitals have been very busy.

“This is normal practice during periods when our hospitals are busy to ensure beds are available for our patients where they need them.”

“As services have been temporarily suspended at our MLUs for a period of at least three months from 1 July 2017, some of the beds at our MLUs have been used elsewhere in the trust.

“However, these beds can be returned at any point and the removal of these beds from our MLUs does not mean the MLUs will remain closed nor does it pre-determine the commissioner-led review of our MLUs.”