 News
6th February 2007
Maternity care facing big changes
Some maternity hospitals in England will lose their doctor led maternity
and child services in favour of regional super-centres says a government
advisor.
Sheila Shribman, National Clinical Director for Children,
Young People and Maternity Services has denied that the move will damage
care as protesters have claimed.
She says that hospitals that lose maternity services will
get midwife led services with the best doctors on hand in round-the-clock
in regional centres.
Many NHS Trusts are already drawing up plans to accommodate
the new services.
But with the NHS over £500 million in the red last
year, critics are claiming that the cuts are being driven by budget.
Dr Shribman says, "I do not believe the changes I am proposing
are about the budget.
"I understand people feel anxious when they think they might
lose something."
She added, "I have no desire to see the reduction of
services. I desperately want to ensure we deliver the best possible services
for all women and their babies. This is not about closure but it is about
change which people find hard sometimes."
In her report, Dr Shribman suggests networks of care could
be created for maternity services, intensive neo-natal care and paediatric
and child cancer services with regional centres supported by enhanced
community services.
She also says it will give women a better support for homebirth,
to come in line with government promises that by 2009 all women will be
able to choose where they give birth.
She has refused to be drawn into how many centres will be
needed by Conservative ministers have identified a total of 43 units at
risk.
Dame Karlene Davies, RCM general secretary, said real choice
was good news for women.
But she added, "We need more than fine words to ensure that
this vision is translated into maternity services that provide not only
choice but one-to-one care from the same midwife throughout pregnancy."
Mary Newburn, of the National Childbirth Trust, said, "Just
because services have been organised around hospitals in the past doesn't
mean this is the best or only way of providing care."
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