Maternity unit to close due to staff shortages

A hospital is planning to temporarily close its maternity unit because of serious staffing shortages.

North Devon District Hospital (NDDH) in Barnstaple, Devon, said it faces not having enough consultant and medical cover to safely continue delivering babies there after 11 August.

The Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, said it would continue to "explore every available opportunity" to avoid suspending the service.

Chief medical officer Vanessa Purday said: "A key priority now is ensuring that those women and families who are due to give birth receive timely, accurate information about their options."

She said it was an "enormous decision and one we feel the weight of in our community" but the trust was "extremely concerned" about staffing levels at the NDDH.

The trust said it could not guarantee that "women would consistently have access to the level of senior medical support during labour they may require".

Purday said it had relied on locum and agency staff for some time, and that recent staff shortages and absences had "tipped the balance into it being unsafe to continue beyond 11 August".

She said maternity teams at North Devon District Hospital and the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, had "worked so hard and held this service together for many months, working extra and longer hours to ensure our families got the care they needed".

But despite efforts to fill gaps in the rota, the trust had been unable to secure enough medical staff from August.

Hospital leaders stressed the move would be temporary and said work was already under way to reopen the unit as soon as possible through recruitment and training.

Maternity teams have started contacting pregnant women in order of their due dates and clinical priority to discuss birth plans. Those who are already more than 34 weeks pregnant will be contacted first.

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