Shropshire Star

Shropshire's rural maternity units to remain closed until December

Shropshire's rural maternity units are to remain closed until December, it has been confirmed.

Published

The move, which was originally announced in July, was confirmed in a three-month review paper presented to the board of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust this week.

Ludlow, Oswestry, and Bridgnorth Midwife Led Units were all closed for six months from July over concerns about staffing levels at the county's main consultant led maternity unit at Princess Royal Hospital Telford (PRH).

Speaking at the trust meeting, Deirdre Fowler, director of nursing, midwifery and quality, said that progress had been made in recruiting more staff with around 20 new midwives in the process of joining the trust.

However, she said that despite the success in recruitment another 17 midwives are still required.

She said: "That is not to be understated because that is quite a chunk of midwives we have not got on the shop floor."

A review on the future of the midwife led units is currently being undertaken by Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group, and Ms Fowler said an outcome is expected shortly.

She said: "We want to facilitate choice but in a sustainable way.

"The second phase of the review is complete, that is the engagement phase, and I believe on October 5 we should know the outcome of the midwifery led review."

The board heard that despite the closure of the units PRH had only seen an extra three births a week on average.

Trust chief executive Simon Wright asked if it would be possible to see the units re-open before December 31.

Ms Fowler said: "SATH are completely supportive of maintaining our rural maternity units, the issue is, and why we acted in July is it has to be done in a sustainable way.

"I would urge caution because one of the things we have learned before July was one of the things women objected to was the unknown and not knowing if the unit was open or closed."