Loss of services at Bridgnorth midwife led unit branded 'outrageous'

The news comes as mothers were "queueing out the door" for a drop-in afternoon at Bridgnorth Maternity Unit as part of a review that will decide the fate of the more rural maternity units, currently being carried out by Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups.

Bobbie Brown, one of the leading campaigners against the loss of services at Shropshire's units, spoke at Bridgnorth Town Council's meeting on Tuesday.

She said: "We've been fighting for our maternity unit since December. Despite everything SaTH (Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust) decided to make temporary closures for six months.

"This is outrageous and unacceptable in my opinion.

"SaTH consulted mums at Bridgnorth maternity unit today and there was queues of mums waiting to talk to them.

"Recently midwives had five mums call the MLU asking what would happen if they turned up in labour and they said they would be turned away which is shocking."

Councillor Julia Buckley proposed that the council send a letter to SaTH asking for the second time to be a "formal partner" in the maternity review, to "express serious concerns and objection to the closure" and to "object strongly to the lack of consultation in this process".

Councillor Buckley said: "This council sent a formal letter in April asking to be a stakeholder. That letter was acknowledged as far as I'm aware this council has not been consulted at all.

"We should have been consulted, at least been informed and none of this has occurred. This letter is reminding them.

"As stakeholders we have a right to be consulted and I hope that they respond to this.

"The people from the consultation that I spoke to said they have never seen anything like it, they've been completely overwhelmed with mothers queueing out the door. They had never seen such a response from the public.

"We've got a really strong case here."

Councillor Carol Whittle said: "I'm fully behind it."

Councillor David Cooper said: "I totally support that. As a matter of principle this council ought to be consulted on any consultation about the wellbeing of our residents in the town by public bodies."

Councillors voted to send the letter to SaTH.

The review is ongoing, but the fate of the midwife-led units is currently contentious as units in Bridgnorth, Ludlow and Oswestry are closed for at least three weeks, possibly as many as six, due to staffing and sickness issues that have dogged the service since the end of last year.