Inpatient services suspended at Ludlow midwife-led unit for two weeks

Services at Ludlow will be suspended from 5pm tomorrow until 9am on March 25.

The unit will remain open between 8am and 8pm for antenatal and postnatal services, but will not be able to accept inpatients.

Meanwhile, full services will open at Oswestry MLU at 10am on Sunday.

Sarah Jamieson, head of midwifery at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which runs the MLUs, said: “As we have said previously, despite a successful recruitment campaign which allowed us to reopen our rural MLUs for births at the start of the year, our service continues to see mums choosing the consultant-led unit over these units, or being assessed as needing a consultant-led birth because of medical need.

“I must reiterate that decisions over staffing are made purely on the basis of the choice our women are making and about maintaining their safety. With 98 per cent of women giving birth away from our rural MLUs, it is important that our midwives are where our mums are. There is no hidden agenda here.

“The safety of women and babies using our maternity services has been, and always will be, our number one priority.

"Staffing levels are an important factor in delivering a high-quality, safe service for women and their babies and we are continuing to work to make sure we have the very best teams in the right place.

“We are intending to undertake a period of engagement as we anticipate women will continue to give birth away from our rural MLUs, and our midwives will need to be where our mums are.

“During the engagement period we would like to hear from local people, and particularly women and families using our maternity services, to understand how we can best meet their needs until a new long-term sustainable model of care proposed by Shropshire, and Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) can be fully implemented.

"Plans for the engagement period are being finalised and further details will be provided in due course.”