Maternity consultation plans for Shropshire facing 'four to five month' wait

NHS England must give the go-ahead for a public consultation.

The consultation will consider proposals to shake-up maternity services and end births at the rural midwife-led units (MLUs) in Oswestry, Ludlow and Bridgnorth.

Health bosses at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs the services, have expressed their concerns about the delay.

A report to the trust board, which meets tomorrow, says: "The delay in the public consultation has been highlighted as a risk to both the clinical quality review meeting and the MLU review programme board.

"The director of nursing, midwifery and quality and the head of midwifery have written to both clinical commissioning groups and the programme board, requesting an estimation of timescales involved.

"Responses back indicate a timescale dependent on a seven stage NHS England assurance process which may ‘last several months (maybe four-five months) before the process is concluded’."

Under the proposals, which have already been signed off by Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin CCGs, women will be able to give birth at the consultant-led unit at Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, at the hospital’s neighbouring midwife led unit at PRH, at a free-standing midwife-led unit at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital or at home.

A series of maternity ‘hubs’ would also be created to support women before and after birth.

The three rural midwife-led units reopened to births on New Year’s Day after a suspension due to staffing issues last year.

Dismay

Health campaigners have expressed their dismay at the repeated temporary suspensions of inpatient services at the MLUs ever since.

SaTH says an increasing number of women are choosing, or being assessed as needing, to have their babies in consultant-led units over rural MLUs.

The temporary closures have also been blamed on staff sickness.

A report to the trust board says maternity sickness rates stood at 6.7 per cent last month compared to 4.9 per cent in October.

In the meantime, SaTH is planning to seek people's views on the temporary closures and a planned programme of rotating four-week suspensions of inpatient services across the rural MLUs.

A report to the board by SaTH's head of midwifery Sarah Jamieson says: "The engagement period will run for four weeks and during that time will seek the views of local communities through a questionnaire; women and families currently using our maternity services through a programme of targeted engagement, which includes focus groups; and liaison with representative groups such as Healthwatch and Powys Community Health Council.

"The results of the engagement period will be analysed externally and presented to the trust board in a public board meeting on May 31.

"During this period of engagement, we would like to hear from local people, and particularly women and families using our maternity services to understand how we can best meet their needs until a new long-term sustainable model of care proposed by Shropshire, and Telford and Wrekin clinical commissioning groups can be fully implemented."

The engagement period will run from April 9 until May 6.