Shropshire Star

Births remain suspended at Shropshire rural maternity units

Births at Bridgnorth, Oswestry and Ludlow midwife-led units will remain temporarily suspended for the foreseeable future.

Published
Oswestry midwife-led unit

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) says the current suspension of inpatient services at the rural maternity units will continue as the trust engages with people using the service.

All three units will remain open between 8am and 8pm for antenatal and postnatal services.

Women booked to give birth at Bridgnorth, Oswestry and Ludlow MLUs, who go into labour during this time, will be offered a birth at either Shrewsbury or Wrekin MLU, the consultant-led unit at Telford's Princess Royal Hospital or at home.

All women potentially affected by the suspensions are being contacted.

Sarah Jamieson, head of midwifery at SaTH, which runs the MLUs, said: “The circumstances which led to our decision to suspend some services from May 20 remain unchanged.

"Unfortunately the issues which have been affecting our maternity service continue.

"With over 98 per cent of our women giving birth away from our rural MLUs, we are having to deploy our midwives where our mothers are choosing, or are being assessed as needing, to be and ensure that our consultant-led unit and our larger MLUs are safely staffed.

“We are planning a period of focused engagement with our service users, during which time we will be seeking their views and feeding these back to the trust board.

"The time period for the engagement and details regarding how to get involved will be released shortly.

“I must again reiterate that decisions over staffing are made purely on the basis of safety.

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

“I would like to apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause.”

Campaigners angry at claims

Earlier this week, campaigners hit back at claims that there are not enough babies being born in rural areas of Shropshire to keep MLUs open for births.

Dr Julian Povey, the chair of Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group, recently said only a fraction of births needed to keep them open were being delivered.

Liz Grayston, who is one of those fighting to keep births in the rural towns, said the reason was because the units had been closed for births off and on all year.

A public consultation on the long-term future of Shropshire’s maternity services could still be four months away.

The consultation will consider proposals to shake up maternity services and end births at the rural MLUs in Oswestry, Ludlow and Bridgnorth.

Under the proposals, which have already been signed off by Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin CCGs, women will be able to give birth at the consultant-led unit at PRH, at the hospital’s neighbouring midwife-led unit at PRH, at a free-standing midwife-led unit at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital or at home.

A series of maternity ‘hubs’ would also be created to support women before and after birth.