Concerns over travelling midwives under 24/7 maternity callout service plan
Summary
Midwives may have to do a lot more travelling around the county under new plans to change maternity services in Gloucestershire. Hospital chiefs are working to safely reopen the maternity unit in Cheltenham and restore the county’s home births service later this year.
Details
The maternity unit at Cheltenham General Hospital was closed temporarily due to safety concerns in April 2022 while home births were also suspended last November. This lack of choice for mothers over the last four years has been a source of great frustration.
Civic chiefs were told today (May 26) how Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust bosses aim to fix this issue by changing the maternity services model in the county. However, under the new plans which incolve an on-demand service for Cheltenham and Stroud, midwives may have to do a lot more travelling.
Under the proposed changes, staff would not be stationed at the maternity unit in Stroud or the Aveta Birth Centre. But would be there when women need to give birth. Medical director Mark Pietroni explained how the new system would work at a Gloucestershire County Council meeting today (May 26).
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He said there would be three midwives on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week with one extra midwife who could be called in from the hospital in Gloucester. He said this model is scalable and should the number of births increase they could recruit more staff. Councillor Paul Hodgkinson (LD, Bourton-on-the-Water and Northleach) said it would be very welcome news if Cheltenham does reopen in the autumn.
But he said staff would have a lot of travelling around the county and raised concerns that Stroud’s post natal care beds will not be opening as part of these short term plans. The meeting heard how the post-natal care beds would be considered as part of the NHS medium to long term plans for maternity services in Gloucestershire.
“This has been a temporary change which has been four years plus,” Cllr Hodginkson said when referring to the maternity unit closure in the spa town. However, he said the delivery of it is now important and asked how staff are being consulted. “We must listen to NHS workers,” he said.
“We must understand what they are feeling about this. What they think.