Tuesday 8 August 2017

Four in 10 maternity wards in England closed in 2016

Four in 10 maternity wards in England closed in 2016 More than 40% of maternity wards in England closed their doors to expectant mothers at least once in 2016, data obtained by the Labour Party suggests.

Responding to a Freedom of Information request, 42 out of 96 trusts said they had shut maternity wards temporarily on a total of 382 occasions.

The most common reasons given were too few staff and not enough beds.

The government said closures are "well rehearsed" and it was "misleading" to say they were down to staff shortages.

The Royal College of Midwives said that sometimes it was right to close a unit and divert new admissions - when the safety of mothers and babies already being treated in the hospital might be compromised, for example.

But doing so on a regular basis could reflect underlying problems with the number of expert staff. BBC News

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