***SOS*** Maternity services
October 1, 2007 12:00 AM
Maternity services - under threat
This news item is one of a series of SOS hospital campaign items highlighting the importance of local services. The suggestions outlined below have been submitted to Mr Gareth Jones, in the wake of a survey that shows that 91 % of local respondents believe that the Hatfield Hospital remains the answer to the area's health needs.
Maternity services should be provided locally. Choice should be available, e.g. home births, midwife-led unit or hospital. Big is NOT necessarily beautiful, if maternity services are centralised in one hospital it means that at least 3,000 births a year will be in a hospital a long way from parents' homes and, thus, if there are difficulties, to quote a midwife "babies will be born and die on the A1(M)". We have not seen any evidence in the Consultation document that mothers will be given a choice as to where their baby is born and there don't seem to be any concrete plans to have a midwife-led birthing unit at the hospital site that is not chosen as the acute hospital. Also, with the birth rate going up in Welwyn Hatfield, coupled with the additional homes to be built under the East of England Plan, more facilities will be needed in the future, and it is far from clear that this has been given adequate consideration.
If there are plans for a 'low-risk' midwife-led birthing unit on the General Hospital site, then there must be the facilities to intervene should this be necessary and ultimately perform emergency c-sections if necessary (see article in the WHT this week and letter from Cllr Andrew Canter). At the recent Transport Summit an Ambulance service representative remarked that the issue over maternity emergencies had not been solved yet. Similarly, at the most recent county council Health Scrutiny committee, although four speakers spoke to this problem in response to a question from Cllr Nigel Quinton (substituting for Cllr Canter) no real comfort was provided that this had been adequately thought through.
We understand there are national guidelines on numbers of births required but we would ask these to be set against local needs and local risks. Our expectation is that by the time these plans are implemented the thinking behind centralisation would have changed once more.
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