Mums-to-be turned away as unit shuts

EXPECTANT women ready to give birth were turned away from Oldham’s maternity units on five days in the last three months, health bosses have admitted.

A shortage of beds and staff meant the maternity unit at the Royal Oldham Hospital was forced to shut to new admissions on five separate days for varying amounts of time.

The shutdowns happened between November 3 and February 1, with the pregnant women diverted from The Royal Oldham Hospital to a hospital not run by the Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust.

A trust spokesman said: “Closing maternity units to new admissions is done in response to high levels of clinical activity at a particular time.

“Diverts are put in place in the interests of safety and are instigated only as a last resort. The main reasons were bed capacity caused by high numbers of women attending the units at a particular time, the need to transfer a mother-to-be whose baby will need neo-natal intensive care, and staffing issues.

“The length of the closures ranged from four hours to less than one day.”

In addition to the Oldham women, in the same period Fairfield General Hospital in Bury had to close to new admission on four days, Rochdale Infirmary on two days and North Manchester General Hospital on three days, according to figures provided by the trust, which runs the four sites.

Nationally, last year there were 553 closures and one in eight trusts reported closing more than 10 times.

Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “Every one of these figures tells an awful story of mothers being turned away from hospital at a hugely emotional time — when they are due to give birth.

“The Government must increase midwife numbers as they promised, make sure maternity units get their fair share of NHS funding and sort out its disastrous negotiation of EU rules on doctors’ working hours. Otherwise we’ll only see more closures and distress for mothers and their families.”

But the Department of Health said closures only happen when necessary to ensure the best care for mothers and babies.

Health Minister Ann Keen added: “It is nonsense of Andrew Lansley to claim we are running down maternity services. The real danger to the NHS would be the election of a Conservative government.”