Lord Birt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2016-06-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 11 May (HL8238) and the response deposited by Peterborough and Stamford Hospital NHS Trust on 18 May which showed that Peterborough’s City Hospital maternity unit has been closed to women about to give birth 41 times in the past three years, whether they will review the adequacy of the arrangements within the NHS for forecasting and meeting national and local demand for maternity services.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Maternity Transformation Programme (MTP) has been established to drive the implementation of the recommendations of Better Births, the report of the National Maternity Review. A copy of the report is attached. The MTP is overseen by the Maternity Transformation Board which met for the first time on 8 June and is chaired by Sarah-Jane Marsh, Chief Executive of Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Birmingham Women’s Hospital.

The safety of mother and baby is paramount. We want to ensure that women have as many choices as possible, while minimising any known risk to either themselves or their baby.

Maternity services are unable to plan the exact time and place of birth and there are occasions when a unit cannot safely accept more women into their care. In such cases, the only safe alternative is to close the unit temporarily. It is important of course, that where a unit closes, there are systems and guidelines in place to ensure pregnant women have access to the next closest maternity unit and the type of care they have chosen, including midwifery-led care.