Oswestry maternity figures 'skewed' by births in Wales say campaigners

Health bosses were today outlining a series of possible changes to maternity to Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Council’s joint health overview and scrutiny committee.

Every option that will go out to consultation would see the end, permanently, to births at the three rural units of Oswestry, Bridgnorth and Ludlow.

Instead births will be as they are now, at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal in Telford with community hubs for scans and other pre and post-natal women.

However, only two of 13 scenarios put forward in the report before the committee include a hub without births for Oswestry. In six there are plans for a hub without births in Whitchurch.

One of those who has campaigned to retain births at Oswestry, mother-of-four, Liz Grayston, said the figures published show a low birth rate for the Oswestry area, just 51 in the time used in the report, 1.1 per cent of all births in the county.

Option

"The reason is that, because of the uncertainty over whether Oswestry would be open, mothers-to-be were opting to have their babies in Wrexham, rather than face having to travel to Shrewsbury or, if a consultant-led birth, all the way to Telford," she said.

The report says according to NHS Wales, there were 106 births at Wrexham to mothers from Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin area.

Liz said: " Many of these woman would have chosen to give birth in Oswestry, had that option been available to them.

"Oswestry is a growing town with a young population."

She said she feared that if the community hub was also lost mothers-to-be would face long days going for what should be routine appointment.

"One pregnant lady from the Oswestry area told me that when she went to Telford for a routine scan appointment it took five hours from door-to-door."

She said moves to stop births in rural units were going against the nationwide Better Births initiative.