Almost half of maternity wards 'turn away woman in labour'

Almost half of maternity units closed their doors to new admissions at least once in the last year, new figures show. Data obtained by the Conservatives under the Freedom of Information Act found that many health trusts across England had been forced to shut because they were full or had too few staff. One unit closed itself to new admissions for 48 hours while many others closed for more than 10 hours at a time. According to the data, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in Kent had 97 temporary closures in 2008, while Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust in Hertfordshire had 91. An analysis of the data showed that 50 trusts (48 per cent) that responded had closed their maternity unit or had been forced to divert women to another site. This was up on the 42 per cent figure for 2007 taken from a similar survey. A total of 14 (13 per cent) of the 104 trusts were forced to close their maternity unit more than 10 times, up from 9 per cent in 2007. 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 local maternity units get their fair share of NHS funding; and sort out their disastrous negotiation of EU rules on doctors' working hours." A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "Sometimes units do have to temporarily shut their doors, usually for very short periods of time. "We appreciate that it is distressing to be told that your care is going to be provided elsewhere but this is always undertaken in the interests of safety for the mother and baby."

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ITN | February 8, 2009

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