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CONSERVATIVES PLEDGE TO SUPPORT SMALLER MATERNITY UNITS
New analysis conducted by the House of Commons Library for the Conservatives shows that smaller maternity units tend to do better.
The Conservative spokesman and candidate for parliament, Mark Versallion, welcomed the findings this week. The Healthcare Commission recently rated the performance of maternity units for the first time. The new analysis shows that there is a statistically significant relationship between a lower number of births at a unit and a better Healthcare Commission rating.
75 per cent of Hospitals with less than 3,000 births (the minimum for an ‘efficient’ unit, according to the Government’ were rated ‘best performing’ or ‘better performing’ by the Healthcare Commission, compared with just 43 per cent of hospitals with more than 3,000 births.
In 2006-06 Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust was appraised as 'Fair Performing' and had 1,409 registered births. In contrast Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust was appraised as 'Least Well Performing' and had 6,860 registered births. (Sources: Healthcare Commission, Review of Maternity Services, 25 January 2008; and NHS Information Centre, NHS Maternity Statistics 2005-06, 26 June 2007).
A Conservative government would support smaller maternity units, in contrast to Labour closing and downgrading them.
Prospective MP, Mark Versallion said: “This analysis proves that Labour’s policy of downgrading or closing smaller maternity units just doesn’t make sense. Women don’t want to have to travel for miles to give birth, yet small units that do well are facing cuts and closures because of Labour’s mismanagement of the NHS."
A Conservative government would support smaller maternity units because the evidence shows they do better”.
NOTES TO EDITORS
Comparison with other European countries
Expectant mothers in other European countries typically do not have their babies delivered in large maternity units delivering thousands of live births every year.
The largest maternity unit in Germany – the Humboldt maternity unit in Berlin – has just over 3,000 live births every year (Reform, Maternity services in the NHS, December 2005; available at: www.reform.co.uk/filestore/pdf/Maternity%20services%20in%20the%20NHS.pdf).
The largest maternity unit in France – the Jeanne de Flandre Hospital in Lille – has just over 4,000 live births every year.
Case studies – maternity units closed or set to be closed
Hartlepool Hospital maternity
unit downgraded. Healthcare
Commission rating: Better performing
In September 2004
just before a local by-election, Tony Blair promised regarding the University
Hospital of Hartlepool: ‘There is no question of the hospital closing or services
being rundown’ (The Hartlepool Mail, 19 January 2007). On 19 January 2007,
the Independent Reconfiguration Panel recommended that the North Tees and
Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust should proceed with its proposals to centralise
maternity services at the University Hospital of North Tees, with only a midwife-led
maternity unit remaining at the University Hospital of Hartlepool. It said:
‘Consultant-led maternity and paediatric services should be centralised at
the University Hospital of North Tees to ensure that services remain safe
for patients and viable north of the Tees. For the large number of women who
do not require medical intervention during childbirth, a midwife-led maternity
unit and a paediatric assessment unit - in addition to elective surgery and
emergency medical services - should be provided at the University Hospital
of Hartlepool’ (Press Release, 19 January 2007). The consultant-led maternity
unit at Hartlepool Hospital closed on 28 January 2008. It will reopen as a
midwife-led service in May (The Hartlepool Mail, 19 January 2008).
Eastbourne Hospital maternity
unit downgrading proposed. Healthcare Commission rating: Better performing
On 20 December 2007,
a joint committee of the East Sussex Downs and Weald Primary Care Trust and
the Hastings and Rother Primary Care Trust took the decision that it wants
to concentrate maternity services in the East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust at
Hastings, providing only midwife-led care in Eastbourne in future. It said:
‘The NHS is to develop a single site option for consultant led maternity services
in East Sussex based at the Conquest Hospital in Hastings. The NHS will also
develop a midwife-led birthing centre at Eastbourne, alongside the existing
birthing centre at Crowborough’ (East Sussex Downs and Weald PCT Press Release).
However, the county’s Scrutiny Health Committee was unhappy with this decision
on 28 January 2008 and was referring the proposals to the Secretary of State
for Independent Review.
North Tyneside General
Hospital maternity unit downgraded. Healthcare Commission rating: Best performing
The maternity unit
at North Tyneside General hospital was changed from being consultant-led to
midwife-led on 1 August 2007. The Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
had reported earlier in the year: ‘Over the next few months there will be
some changes to Northumbria's maternity services, following a maternity services
review. From 1 August the maternity unit at Wansbeck General Hospital will
become our only consultant-led unit and North Tyneside's unit will become
midwifery-led’ (Bulletin to GPs, 29 March 2007).