Midwife staffing numbers improve – but birth unit and beds still closed
MIDWIFE staffing numbers are improving in the county but hospital bosses cannot say when Cheltenham’s birthing unit and the postnatal beds will reopen.
The Aveta Birth unit in Cheltenham and the six postnatal beds at Stroud Maternity Hospital have been closed since 2022.
Midwifery staff was centralised to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital to ensure safe staffing levels, and, in particular, one-to-one care in labour and birth. Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has invested an extra £1.8m to increase maternity staffing, including obstetricians, consultants, administration support since 2020.
The number of midwives working in the department has increased from 242.99 in 2020 to 263.77 in December last year. The vacancy rate for clinically delivering midwives has dropped from 15 per cent last summer to 7.85 per cent in December 2023.
Health bosses predict that the vacancy rate will reduce to 5.3 per cent by July 2024 but are yet to give a date as to when they will reopen the closed services. Director of midwifery Lisa Stevens told Gloucestershire County Council’s health overview and scrutiny committee on March 12 that the temporary closures at Cheltenham and Stroud are related to their midwifery numbers.
She said there is an extensive recruitment and retention plan. “We have a team that is working on that action plan. It’s really important that we put focus in both of those areas,” she said.
“We’ve had significant wins around recruiting newly qualified midwives to our service. We are also focusing on our midwives feeling valued so they want to stay with us and we are doing significant work around what makes midwives want to stay with us at Gloucester.”
Chief executive Kevin Mcnamara said they are working to understand what conditions they would need to meet to be able to reopen the beds at Stroud and the Aveta safely. He said the priority is to focus on Cheltenham first and the Stroud beds secondly.
“We will be meeting with the integrated care board later this month to talk through what that looks and feels like,” he said. “Obviously we will be wanting to ensure our own board is assured we are not going to compromise from a safety perspective in the pursuit of opening it solely on choice.” Councillor David Drew (L, Stroud Central) said the ongoing closures have deprived Gloucestershire women of choice. “What I would really be asking for is we push on with getting more midwives which is the real issue,” he said. “But also, we need to say to women this is what’s going on in this county. These are things that need to improve. “Unless we get back there, women will feel deprived in this county and they will feel worried and they shouldn’t be worried.
“All the message that has been coming forward is that things aren’t very good and we haven’t got enough midwives and Stroud isn’t operating the way it should be and Cheltenham isn’t open at all. We have got to get that sorted out.” Chairman Andrew Gravells (C, Abbey) said the committee has been talking about Stroud maternity services for several years. He said councillors want to protect maternity services in the county.