Pontefract Hospital: Maternity birthing unit near Leeds set to close permanently due to midwife staffing

The town’s birthing facility was shut down on a temporary basis in 2019 due to a shortage of midwives.

Health chiefs are now being asked to agree to the permanent closure of Friarwood Birth Centre.

A document recommending the closure says the number of women choosing to give birth at the centre was lower than expected.

It says: “We cannot justify deployment of midwives to cover the low number of births at Pontefract as we do not have enough midwives to safely staff three sites and community services.”

If approved, maternity provision will continue to be prioritised at Pinderfields Hospital, in Wakefield.

Members of the Wakefield District Health and Care Partnership (WDHCP) committee are due to decide on the proposal at a meeting on January 9.

The decision was previously taken to temporarily suspend births at Pontefract “on the grounds of clinical safety”.

It allowed midwives to be deployed at centres where there were there were a higher number of births.

Before the suspension, around 200 women a year give birth at Pontefract.

Midwife numbers in the district have increased following a recruitment drive.

But a report says a formal decision on permanent closure needs to be taken to meet national maternity standards and to allow for long-term planning.

It would mean there would be no facility for births at Pontefract.

A full range of ante-natal and post-natal care would retained at the hospital.

Women will still have the choice of giving birth at home, based on clinical assessment.

The report says a “significantly higher” number of women chose maternity facilities at Pinderfields.

It adds: “The proposal reflects feedback from engagement that people want safe staffing levels.

“Safer staffing levels will be achieved across the whole service as staff are not being stretched.”

At the time of the temporary closure, NHS bosses said they initially pledged to reopen the unit at the end of September 2020.

A decision was then taken to keep the facility shut to allow hospital staff to focus on takling the covid pandemic.

Speaking ahead of the committee meeting, Len Richards, chief executive at Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, said: “I can confirm that the Wakefield District Health and Care Partnership Committee and

the Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust have put forward a proposal to not reinstate the facility to give birth at the Friarwood Birth Centre at Pontefract Hospital.

“The centre at the hospital has not been available for women to give birth for the last four years, when we took the decision to temporarily cease offering births on the grounds of safety due to staff shortages and the fact that women were not choosing to birth there.

“When the Friarwood Birth Centre was open, the uptake of the service was lower than intended with an average of 200 births per year. Indeed, more women from East of the Wakefield district chose to use the Maternity Led Unit at Pinderfields Hospital. Our postcode data also demonstrates that the birth centre was mostly used by women living in Pontefract postcode areas, however women from Pontefract gave birth in larger numbers at the birth centre at Pinderfields.

“As a consequence – and due to not having enough midwives to safely staff all sites at once – we were often forced to divert midwifery resource to Pinderfields where the vast majority of births take place. This resulted in the Friarwood Birth Centre often being open and shut with little notice. Opening and closing due to midwife availability is not a sustainable way to manage the service. It results in uncertainty for women planning their birth and is an equally poor experience for the midwives who work there.

“We will continue to offer all the pre and post-natal care we provide at the maternity unit at Pontefract. This includes antenatal and postnatal care, obstetric scanning (dating and growth scans), consultant clinics, gestational diabetes services, asthma services (Lead Midwife for Maternal Medicine), stop smoking services, in-patient monitoring and overflow appointments from Pinderfields maternity unit. We also deliver staff training and will be delivering parent education classes.

“This is all part of us wanting to give those who are due to give birth in the Pontefract area their ongoing care as close to home as possible. And indeed, it’s evidence of our absolute commitment to the further development of our services at Pontefract Hospital, which offers such excellent facilities. Since September 2019 we have invested a total £22.6m in developing the services and facilities we offer from the hospital for our local community."