Shropshire maternity consultation delay 'completely unacceptable'
The time it is taking to get an answer from NHS bosses on whether the public consultation can go ahead surrounding a shake-up of maternity services in Shropshire is "completely unacceptable", a health board has been told.
The consultation is still awaiting the green light by NHS chiefs, despite being signed off by local health bosses more than two years ago.
The proposals, which could see a permanent end to births at rural maternity units in the county, are yet to be discussed by NHS England and Improvement’s national panel.
Dr Julian Povey, chair of Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group, agreed to write to NHS England about the concerns during a board meeting on Wednesday.
Fiona Ellis, local maternity system programme manager, told the board that no date had yet been set for the national panel to meet but they were continuing to ask the question on a regular basis.
Keith Timmis, lay member on the board, said: "I think it's completely unacceptable, the amount of time it is taking to get an answer, whether it's positive or negative, and I wonder whether we could send something formally from the governing body to NHS England to say that we are distressed at the delay to try to move to the next stage of this, because this affects us getting improvements that would affect the women across the whole of the area.
"I think it's deeply disappointing."
In response, Dr Povey said: "I think it's reasonable to write about our frustration about the delay and I'm happy to take that away and work with David [Evans] to write a letter to NHS England."
Beneficial
Ms Ellis said the delay was also frustrating for The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) and Telford's Princess Royal Hospital (PRH), as well as the rural maternity units.
She said: "We've got a new director of midwifery in who is very keen to start to drive forward some of that transformational change.
"At this point in time we are not able to support some of that change that she wants to implement, and actually we agree that needs to happen but we need to ensure due process is followed.
"Whatever we can do to keep pushing back to the decision makers would be really beneficial."
Under the proposals, women will be able to give birth at the consultant-led unit at PRH, at the hospital’s neighbouring midwife-led unit, at a free-standing midwife-led unit at RSH or at home.
A series of maternity ‘hubs’ would also be created to support women before and after birth.
Currently, births at midwife-led units in Oswestry, Ludlow and Bridgnorth are suspended, to the dismay of health campaigners.
SaTH said an increasing number of women were choosing, or being assessed as needing, to have their babies in consultant-led units over rural midwife-led units.
