County leaders today called on Health Secretary Yvette Cooper to make good on her Labour Conference pledge to stop the NHS treating mums-to-be as “second class citizens” by reopening North Devon maternity unit in days not weeks or months.
Since August 11, expectant mothers have been forced to travel for up to two hours to Exeter following the suspension of births at North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple. The maternity unit was due to reopen on September 29 but remains closed due to the Royal Devon University Healthcare Trust’s failure to solve its staffing shortage.
More than 300 mums-to-be are on standby to travel and 154 mothers have so far given birth at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.
Thousands have joined the Maternity Matters campaign in North Devon to press the Health Secretary Yvette Cooper and Prime Minister Andy Burnham to step in and reopen the unit.
Devon County Council held a special council meeting in Bideford and has formed a Task Force to help the Trust recruit staff. It had also set up a standby taxi service for vulnerable and low income mothers.
At the Labour Party Conference last Wednesday, Ms Cooper promised to reintroduce national maternity standards and stated: “I am sick and tired of women and babies being treated as second class citizens and I will not stop until every mother is given the care she deserves.”
Councillor Jess Bailey, Chair of Devon County Council’s Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee, responded:
“If women and babies in the rest of Britain are being treated as second class citizens, those in North Devon are stuck in a third class below them and we are sick and tired of that.
“It is incredibly disappointing no help has been forthcoming from the Health Secretary. Solutions have not been found locally by the NHS to this crisis and we need the Health Secretary’s intervention without delay before winter sets in.
“We cannot allow this situation to continue with women facing up to a two hour drive on what are renowned as some of Devon’s most dangerous roads. With winter approaching and no date for the re-opening in place, the situation is becoming even more risky.
“We’ve written to the Health Secretary and Prime Minister three times now and have yet to receive a response. Yvette Cooper has spoken of her own experiences giving birth and not treating women and babies as second class citizens but we need more than words.
“At our special meeting, we heard first hand the trauma and distress this is causing. Women spoke with dignity, courage and honesty about the impact this failure has had at one of the most vulnerable moments in their lives. It’s time their voices were heard at the highest level and their fear ended.”
Devon County Council Leader Julian Brazil added:
“It is vital the Government recognises the ongoing fragility of health services in communities like North Devon.
“We’ve written three times to Yvette Cooper and received no reply. Hundreds of expectant mothers are counting the days until she makes good on her Conference pledge.”
