NHS Alliance warns up to 20 maternity units may change

Matthew Hopkins, acute-care director at the NHS Alliance, has warned that up to 20 of England’s 155 consultant-led maternity units may need to close or change their role, citing staffing shortages and rising caesarean rates. No closure programme has been announced; the figure is an estimate in Hopkins’s call for a review of how maternity services are organised. Hopkins said smaller units, particularly in rural and coastal areas, were becoming harder to staff and sustain. He pointed to shortages of consultant obstetricians and increasing demand for planned and emergency caesarean sections, which require adequate staffing, operating theatres and beds. Units delivering about 1,500 to 2,000 babies a year were among those he said could face pressure. The NHS Alliance has called for a thorough appraisal of where services should be located, arguing that consolidating care at fewer hospitals could support safer and more sustainable services. Any changes, Hopkins said, should involve NHS leaders, clinical staff, patients and local communities. The reporting does not identify specific units proposed for closure or establish how many, if any, would close rather than take on a different...