HRI Birth Centre is shut for three weeks
HUDDERSFIELD’S Birth Centre has closed to expectant mums once again ... and will be for a few weeks.
Hospital bosses have revealed they do not plan to re-open it as a Birth Centre until Monday, April 16.
It comes just two weeks after the sixbed ward was closed for five days, with the beds needed for other patients.
A spokeswoman for Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust said the temporary closure is once again due to demand for beds due to “exceptionally high volume of poorly patients” at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.
The statement adds: “The Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation has taken the decision that, as a result of the ongoing demand for beds due to exceptionally high volume of poorly patients, the Huddersfield Birth Centre will be used to provide some of the required extra capacity until April 16.
“This decision has been made, after careful consideration, as the best way to provide safe care for our patients.
“We are very sorry that for this short time the mums who had chosen this facility for their births will be asked to select one of the different birthing options we offer including the Birth Centre at Calderdale Royal Hospital, a home birth or the labour ward at CRH.
“All their options and ongoing care will be discussed fully with their midwives and those discussions with mums affected are already under way.
“The extra beds will ease the pressure which may otherwise have led us to placing patients who have arrived at A&E in unsuitable temporary locations. “This is purely an interim measure. “The Trust is fully committed to retaining a Birth Centre in Huddersfield and, indeed, is part of our long term plans for the HRI site.”
Chief Operating Officer Helen Barker added: “We have taken this exceptional decision now to clarify the position until after Easter and end any ongoing uncertainty for our mums-to-be and their families. The Birth Centre will reopen on April 16 and would like to thank our mums-to-be for working with us at this very challenging time.
“We would also like to reassure all our local populations we are doing the very best to provide safe, quality care at a time of exceptional pressure.”
The Birth Centre opened in 2008 and offered a midwife-led approach to childbirth with some rooms fitted with birthing pools.
Under controversial plans to reconfigure hospitals in Halifax and Huddersfield, the main HRI building would be demolished and replaced with a new hospital with just 64 beds while Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax would be increased from 400 to between 615 and 700.
Earlier this month a judge at the High Court in Leeds ruled that the plans needed to go to a full judicial review on several grounds including that there was a flawed consultation and the full business case put forward was also flawed.
The review will be held at Leeds High Court, probably in June.