Interim Changes to Women’s Clinical Services Announced By BCUHB

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board have today agreed an interim urgent change to consultant-led obstetric services to maintain safe standards of care. 

At its Board meeting in public today, the Health Board agreed that obstetric services should be consolidated onto two hospital sites – and that these should be Ysbyty Gwynedd and Wrexham Maelor – for an interim period of at least 12 months but of no more than 18 months.

The Board noted that difficulties in recruiting doctors mean that running obstetric rotas on each of the three main hospital sites is not sustainable at this time and that a continued reliance on locum and agency staff represents an unacceptable clinical risk.

The Midwifery-Led Unit at Glan Clwyd will remain as a free-standing Midwifery-Led Unit so healthy women experiencing a normal pregnancy can continue to give birth there. A switch date of April 6th 2015 will be worked towards.

Angela Hopkins, Executive Director for Nursing and Midwifery Angela Hopkins said: “Our primary motivation for making this interim change is to ensure the safety of mothers and babies.

“We believe that consolidating staff with the right expertise on two sites for a period of time is the right thing to do. Spreading them too thinly across three sites means that we cannot be assured that mothers and babies are receiving the required standards of care.

“This is not a permanent change and our plans for the Sub Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Centre (SuRNICC) remain our strategic goal. Glan Clwyd will have a midwife-led maternity unit continuously through this interim period, so that healthy women experiencing normal pregnancies will continue to give birth there.

“Choice for women about how they give birth will be maintained. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) advise that healthy women experiencing a normal pregnancy should be encouraged to give birth where the midwife is the lead professional.

“Throughout their nine month pregnancy, healthy women will still have their care locally, but some will be asked to go elsewhere for specialised antenatal care, labour and birth.

“We appreciate that this could be a worrying time for some mothers, their families and our staff. However, the safety of mothers and babies is our primary concern.

“We will now work up plans to move towards the interim arrangements during April. Public information will follow so that all affected patients understand their options.”

There will be no change to services such as day case or outpatient gynaecology or services that are currently delivered in the community such as antenatal and postnatal services, parentcraft and community midwifery.

Some interim changes will be made to neonatal services and inpatient gynaecology. Breast surgery will be centred at Glan Clwyd to serve the whole of North Wales.

Marc Jones, on behalf of the North Wales Health Alliance, said: “Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board’s intention to downgrade maternity services at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd from April will cause huge concern amongst mothers-to-be in that part of North Wales.

“It will mean greater pressure on the other two units at Ysbyty Gwynedd and Wrexham Maelor. Yet, despite this downgrading, there is still talk of a neonatal intensive care unit being established at Glan Clwyd. It seems senior managers are reacting to problems of recruitment and expertise rather than pro-actively trying to deal with issues.

“More and more health professionals are contacting us to tell us they are demoralised and stressed due to lack of leadership, poor staffing levels and an over-dependence on locum and agency staff. It seems senior management is either unable or incapable of dealing with fundamental problems within our NHS.”