Just 21 people attend events over Shropshire maternity services
Just 21 people attended engagement events over plans to suspend births at Shropshire’s rural midwife-led units until a long-term plan for the county’s maternity services is put in place.
The proposal has been made by Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which carried out a six-week public engagement exercise to find out the impact this would have on women and their families.
A report to SaTH's trust board, which met on Thursday, said 15 events for the public and 15 events for staff were held across the county.
But it revealed just nine members of the public and 12 staff attended the events.
Board members were also told that views were sought via a questionnaire on SaTH's website, however it has not yet been revealed how many people responded in that way.
Dr Chris Weiner, non-executive director, raised the issue during SaTH's trust board meeting.
He said: "I'm quite surprised at how few people have entered into the discussions about this.
"Are we sure we have provided the right opportunities for people to engage at the right time of day?"
In response, Deirdre Fowler, SaTH's director of nursing, midwifery and quality, said the events had been supported by an external company and the trust would be questioning why attendance was so low.
The engagement period ran from July 3 to August 13.
Recommendations
The report to the trust board says the outcome of the engagement period is 'in the process of analysis'.
A report containing any recommendations is expected to be presented to the board at the end of September.
It comes as a public consultation on plans to scrap births completely at the maternity units in Bridgnorth, Oswestry and Ludlow is yet to start.
The proposals have been put forward by Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups.
SaTH says that inpatient services at the rural maternity units have been temporarily suspended on safety grounds for the foreseeable future.
Its proposal is for the temporary suspensions to continue until a new long term sustainable model of care can be implemented by the CCGs.
Health bosses say more than 98 per cent of women are giving birth away from the rural midwife-led units and the trust has to deploy its midwives where women are choosing, or are being assessed as needing to be.
Simon Wright, chief executive of SaTH, previously said in order for the rural maternity units to reopen to births the trust would have to see more women choosing to have their babies there.
