£400,000 upgrade for Shrewsbury hospital maternity unit - have your say
The maternity unit at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital is getting a revamp as part of a £400,000 upgrade.
Mothers and their families are also being given a say on how the midwife-led unit (MLU) will look.
The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs the MLU at RSH, says it is investing the money to tackle issues caused by the age of the building.
The MLU is based in the Copthorne Building but services had to be relocated to another part of the building in February after heavy winter snowfall caused damage to the roof.
As well as making repairs, SaTH has used the relocation as an opportunity to upgrade the MLU.
Building work is already under way and is expected to continue until the late autumn.
The refurbishment includes the replacement of the roof and improvements to facilities such as natural lighting in the birthing rooms and the addition of birthing couches.
Health bosses say it will provide a ‘home-from-home’ setting for women to give birth and offer improved facilities for partners.
Sarah Jamieson, head of midwifery at SaTH, said: “We are delighted that we have been able to start work on upgrading our MLU at Shrewsbury.
"Because of the age of the building, we know that there have been some issues which our staff have been dealing with and others which our mums and families have told us about.
“Of course, we would have preferred not to have had the problem with the roof in the winter, but this has given us the opportunity to improve and update our facilities to ensure we can give our mums the best possible experience.
“As part of that, we will be asking families and staff to be part of the planning for internal improvements to the environment through our local Maternity Voices Partnership."
Anyone who would like to be involved can email maternity.voices@nhs.net or contact Louise Macleod, maternity voices development co-ordinator, at louise.macleod5@nhs.net or call 07773 572739.
It comes as health bosses have suspended births at Shropshire's three rural maternity units for the foreseeable future.
SaTH has proposed for the suspension to continue until a long-term plan for the county's maternity services is put in place.
The trust launched a six-week public engagement exercise earlier this month to find out the impact this would have on women and their families.
It means there is a chance that births may never return to Ludlow, Bridgnorth and Oswestry MLUs.
Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin clinical commissioning groups’ long-term proposals involve scrapping births at the rural MLUs.
A public consultation over the plans is expected to take until at least October to begin.
SaTH says that services have been temporarily suspended on safety grounds to address the ongoing operational pressures within the service.
All three units remain open between 8am and 8pm for antenatal and postnatal services.
SaTH's engagement period will run until August 13.
People can give their views through a questionnaire or discussion groups.
The feedback will be analysed by the trust’s community engagement team and presented to the trust board, alongside any associated recommendations regarding future temporary suspensions, in a meeting on September 27.
The questionnaire is available at surveymonkey.co.uk/r/1804SaTHMS2 or people can request a hard copy by calling 01743 261000, extension 3840.
