Almost half of maternity units have been closed to new mothers

NEW RESEARCH has revealed that nearly half of England’s maternity units closed to new mothers at some point in 2017, up on the previous year.

The most commonly reported reason for closures was capacity and staffing issues.

The Royal College of Midwives’ estimates that the NHS in England has a shortage of 3,500 midwives.

Data obtained by the Labour Party under the Freedom of Information Act shows there were 287 occasions when maternity units were closed to new mothers in 2017. Some 41 trusts which re- sponded to a request for information said they temporarily closed maternity wards to new admissions at some point in 2017

Eight trusts had closures lasting more than 24 hours. Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust closed four times in 2017 to maintain safety and staffing levels. Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Health, said: “Expectant mothers deserve reassurance that the local maternity unit will be there for them when needed. Every pregnant women turned away from a maternity unit due to staff shortages and shortages of beds and cots deserves an apology from Government ministers for the years of Tory cuts.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Temporary closures in NHS maternity units are well rehearsed safety measures which trusts use to safely manage peaks in admis- sions. To use these figures as an indication of safe staffing issues, particularly when a number of them could have been for a matter of hours, is misleading because maternity services are unable to plan the exact time and place of birth for all women in their care.”