Births to remain suspended at Shropshire's rural maternity units
Births at Shropshire's rural midwife-led units will remain suspended until a long-term plan for the county’s maternity services is put in place, health bosses have decided.
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust's board voted in favour of the recommendation at a meeting on Thursday, after being told that levels of sickness in maternity services had risen in recent months.
The trust announced in June that births at Bridgnorth, Oswestry and Ludlow midwife-led units would remain temporarily suspended for the foreseeable future, while the trust engaged with people using the service.
Health bosses said more than 98 per cent of women were giving birth away from the rural midwife-led units and the trust has to deploy its midwives where women are choosing, or are being assessed as needing to be.
Now, after the board's decision, the suspension will continue and may mean that the units never reopen for women to give birth there.
It comes as a public consultation on plans to scrap births completely at the three rural maternity units is yet to start.
The proposals have been put forward by Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups, but health bosses say the consultation is unlikely to start before June next year.
The delay was outlined in a report to the trust's board.
Deirdre Fowler, director of nursing, midwifery and quality, told the board that levels of sickness in maternity services had risen in the past six months.
The report before the board said the main reason for absence was mental health issues.
Ben Reid, chair of the trust, said he appreciated there was a shortage of staff and it was not a 'practical proposition' to reopen the rural midwife-led units to births.
The CCGs' plans could see the complete closure of the maternity units at Bridgnorth and Oswestry.
The model proposes offering five maternity ‘hubs’ which would provide midwifery care and a range of other services, open seven days a week, 12 hours a day.
They are proposed to be at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, Telford's Princess Royal Hospital, Lakeside South in south Telford, Ludlow and Whitchurch.
Mothers-to-be would still be able to give birth at the hospitals in Shrewsbury and Telford, or opt for a home birth.
During Thursday's board meeting, Ms Fowler said the trust was continuing to cooperate with the independent review looking into historic maternity-based deaths in the county.
The review was launched last year at the request of then-Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and is now thought to be looking into more than 200 cases.
