NHS Managers Say up to Twenty Maternity Units May Have to Close
A body representing health managers says the way maternity care is organised in England is not fit for purpose, and that up to twenty of the 155 consultant-led units will have to shut or change role. Units delivering 1,500 to 2,000 babies a year are most at risk, concentrated in rural and coastal areas. Two royal colleges have objected within hours.
The case for consolidation rests on three things happening at once: a shortage of obstetricians, a sharp rise in planned and emergency caesareans requiring more staff and more theatre time, and buildings described as outdated and decaying. A director at the NHS Alliance, Matthew Hopkins, argues the change is “inevitable” and “the right thing… the safe thing for patients”, and that politicians “must have the courage to make the case for patient safety” and grasp the nettle. The objections came immediately and from the professions themselves. The Royal College of Midwives’ chief policy officer said women and families “rely on local maternity units to be there when they need them”; the president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said there are “other solutions to our workforce challenges that are far safer than closing maternity units”. The argument is not abstract. The unit at Barnstaple has been suspended since August over staffing, leaving a fifty-three-mile journey to Exeter, and the trust decides this week whether it can safely reopen. A government maternity taskforce reports before Christmas, and the managers fear it will be tokenistic.