Births to end at three Shropshire maternity units under new plans

In the proposed model, women would be able to give birth at the Consultant-led unit at the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) and at the alongside Midwife Led Unit, which is also on the hospital site, as well as a freestanding Midwife Led Unit in Shrewsbury and at home. For women who choose maternity services over the border there are proposals to improve pathways to make access easier.

In Bridgnorth, Ludlow and Oswestry hubs would offer a broad range of services. These would include antenatal and postnatal care from a midwife, scanning, fetal monitoring and day assessment. There would also be support with emotional wellbeing and mental health related to pregnancy and early parenthood as well as healthy lifestyle services. The services would also be offered in Shrewsbury and Telford too.

Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups have put the plans forward following a major review.

Dr Jess Sokolov, Shropshire CCG’s Clinical Lead for the midwifery led services review, speaking on behalf of both CCGs, said: “This proposed new model improves services for women and staff by making the best use of resources in line with what women and their families want and need.

“We’ve listened to what local mums, staff and others with an interest in midwife led units think about the current midwifery led services and have directly used their ideas raised during the co-design workshops in pulling the proposed new service model together.

“One of the things mums told us is that having a baby was not just about a trip to a delivery room to give birth, but a whole journey that starts before getting pregnant and goes on long after the baby is born. The new model really responds to this by bringing together a whole range of services throughout pregnancy and beyond, which are flexible and accessible, regardless of where mums live in the county.

“This model also has an increased focus in ensuring that it cares for both the physical and emotional wellbeing of becoming a mum - something that women said wasn’t good enough in existing services.”

Sarah Jamieson, Head of Midwifery at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), said: “I’m delighted the proposals from this review are now available to us. Over the last few months we have worked closely with our CCGs to enable a robust and complete review of our service as it stands today.

“We know that the needs and wishes of our population have changed over the years. This review has been responsive to those changes and presents us with some real and exciting opportunities. At SaTH, we are eager to begin to look at how these proposals can be connected with the work of our Local Maternity System (LMS)."

The proposed model will be presented to Shropshire CCG’s Governing Body to review and comment on in December, before going to Telford CCG’s Governing Body in January.

Once the two Governing Bodies have considered the proposal it is intended that it will be subject to consultation.

Health campaigners condemn plans
“After this people will have no trust in public consultation.”

That’s the view of Councillor Tracey Huffer.

“The whole consultation over the future of rural maternity units has been a charade. This proposal makes a mockery of all of us who gave time up to attend so-called consultation workshops.

“What has come out of all the consultation is absolutely nothing. The CCG is just doing what it always planned to do. Centralise vital services in Telford and Shrewsbury at the expense of those that live in rural areas of the county and Powys.

“After this, people will have no trust in public consultations. It was all sewn up in advance.”

Shropshire Defend Our NHS have also issued a statement saying: “How dare they? They’re playing games with the lives of women and babies.”

Mayor of Ludlow, Cllr Tim Gill said: "I am bitterly disappointed, but not surprised, about the proposal to to close Ludlow Maternity unit for live births. As many of us suspected, the whole consultation process over rural maternity has been a sham, a waste of time, nothing more than a PR exercise to legitimize a done deal.

"The claim "We've listened what to local mums," I think is clearly not the case where Ludlow is concerned. Once again patient needs in the South Shropshire, in our rural communities, are not considered a priority or important.