C-sections stopped due to lack of hospital staff
PREGNANT mothers will no longer be able to have elective caesareans at Good Hope Hospital after staff shortages raised operating theatre safety fears.
Expectant mums who need an elective C-section – where the procedure is booked in advance – will be directed to Heartlands Hospital from July 3.
Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT), which runs both sites, said recent resignations meant Good Hope no longer had enough staff to safely staff operate theatres for both emergency and elective caesareans.
Yet some employees and locals fear the move could be see more cut-backs at the hospital, after maternity services were previously scaled down at Solihull Hospital to provide care for low-risk deliveries only.
One staff member told the Birmingham Post: “How can you run a maternity service without elective caesarean sections? Even much smaller hospitals like Nuneaton or Warwick perform elective caesarean sections.
“This is how Solihull Hospital lost its maternity service, in all but name.
“First the elective work, then the anaesthetic support and with it the emergency service.
“In place of the 2,500 baby maternity unit, there now stands a midwife-led unit delivering 250 of the low-risk babies per year, with a 45-minute ambulance ride if there is any form of problem.
“I am upset by this cloak and dagger politicking... but I am most upset for the women of Sutton Coldfield.”
Good Hope Hospital delivers around 10 babies via elective C-section a week, or 547 a year, which can be for reasons including a breech or pre-eclampsia.
In a statement the trust said: “From July, there will be a limited number of theatre support staff at Good Hope Hospital.
“There is a national shortage of staff with these skills and the hospital has been recruiting actively for many months.
“However, due to further resignations of theatre support staff over the last few weeks, the numbers available are too low to safely maintain the planned C-section deliveries, alongside the emergencies. Patients who choose to deliver naturally at Good Hope in the delivery suite and/or need an urgent or emergency caesarean section will continue to have their babies there.
“There is no desire or possibility of moving all services away from Good Hope.”