County leaders today demanded Health Secretary Yvette Cooper publicly declare North Devon’s maternity unit will be reopened and kept open after a key body recommended permanently closing 20 difficult-to-staff units across the UK.
Childbirth services should be centralised into fewer hospitals and those units delivering less than 2,000 births a year mostly in rural and coastal areas such as Barnstaple must be shut according to Matthew Hopkins, Director of Acute Care for the NHS Alliance, which represents NHS Trusts nationwide.
Barnstaple’s maternity unit has been closed since August 11 due to a staff shortage and 194 mothers from across North Devon have had to travel for up to two hours to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital to give birth.
County Councillor Jess Bailey, Chair of Devon County Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee said:
“I am appalled that closing smaller units including Barnstaple is now on the agenda being put forward by NHS bosses.
“At our special meeting in North Devon last month, we heard first hand the terrible impact on women having to travel substantial distances due to the suspension of maternity services in Barnstaple since August.
“Closing units entirely is not the answer to staffing difficulties, proper funding is the solution. Women have the right to give birth safely and close to where they live – whether that’s in Devon or anywhere else.
“I am also totally unimpressed by the silence from the Health Secretary to our three letters requesting she steps in immediately to reopen the unit.
“Not only does Yvette Cooper need to reopen the unit within days, she needs to assure thousands of women across North Devon it will stay open and be staffed properly for years to come.”
Devon County Council Leader Julian Brazil said:
“What we’ve seen happen in North Devon is down to bean counters setting health policy rather than responding to the needs of communities.
“A huge part of the reason why the NHS Trusts in North Devon and Exeter amalgamated was supposedly to solve problems like this by sharing staff. Consultants and doctors should be driving to Barnstaple not expectant mothers and their loved ones travelling up to two hours through this winter on some of our county’s most dangerous roads.
“It’s frankly lazy to say we just need to centralise and totally fails rural communities. The Prime Minister has talked of serving every postcode in the UK. He needs to make good on his words.”
A major national report into the future of maternity services in the UK will be published in December.