Disruption to Shrewsbury Hospital maternity and paediatric services

Essential maintenance work to be carried the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital will mean certain services will be unavailable.

The work is due to be carried out at the RSH for a period of two weeks, starting Monday 17 October.

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) say they are working hard to ensure disruption caused by the essential works to the main plant room in the hospital’s Copthorne Building is kept to an absolute minimum.

Some disruption will be caused to maternity and paediatric services at RSH during the maintenance with a small number of services temporarily suspended, while others will continue to operate as normal, with the exception of hot water and heating. Alternative provisions for staff hand-washing have been provided, however some services require hot water and heating to enable them to continue.

A statement from the hospital outlined what services will be effected:

Provision of the following services will be maintained, with the exception of hot water hand washing facilities and heating - Maternity Outpatients, Paediatric Outpatients, Maternity Day Assessment Unit and Maternity scanning

Provision of the following services will be temporarily suspended as of 8am on Monday 17 October - Intrapartum care for women to include labour and birth and postnatal care for women and their babies. The Midwife-Led Unit will temporarily stop receiving women in labour as of 8am on Sunday 16 October.

Sarah Jamieson, Head of Midwifery at SaTH, said: “We would like to apologise for any inconvenience this temporary closure may cause. We are seeking to minimise the disruption caused, and while the essential works are estimated to last a fortnight, all options are being explored to get the services restored earlier.

“All women booked for the Shrewsbury Midwife-Led Unit at the RSH will be redirected to the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, where they will be able to choose to give birth at either the Wrekin Midwife-Led Unit or the Consultant-Led Unit. The women will then continue to receive their postnatal care in the unit where they give birth until they are able to go home. Their community care will not be affected and hospital staff will be redeployed to these areas to facilitate the additional activity.”

The hospital says that all women booked to have their baby at the Midwife-Led Unit at RSH between Monday 17 October and Monday 31 October are being notified of their options for birth and the important telephone numbers they may require.

The Community Midwifery services will be entirely maintained and should women have concerns they should contact their community midwife using the numbers given to them and contained within their hand-held records.

Patients wishing to discuss their options can call 01743 261216 during the daytime hours of 8am-8pm - Monday to Friday.