Pontefract birth centre: Fresh public consultation over closure to be carried out

Friarwood Birth Centre was temporarily shut in 2019 on safety grounds due to a midwife shortage.

A decision to close it permanently was put on hold in January 2024 following objections from councillors about the public engagement process.

Wakefield District Health and Care Partnership (WDHCP) then agreed to carry out a new consultation but said it could not go ahead before the general or local elections.

Health leaders are expected to agree to hold another 12-week public consultation when they meet on Tuesday (September 5).

A report to WDHCP committee members says a final decision on the future of the unit could then be taken in early 2025.

The document says: “In the meantime, there will be no change to the existing arrangements as there has been no facility to birth at Pontefract since 2019.”

The facility, run by the Mid Yorkshire NHS Hospitals Trust, remains closed.

Maternity provision is prioritised at Pinderfields Hospital, with full antenatal and postnatal care services remaining at Pontefract.

According to the report, the NHS has a statutory duty to consult the public if a service change is introduced “as an urgent action for safety reasons.”

The public is expected to be consulted on a proposal to close the unit but continue to offer a “comprehensive range of antenatal and postnatal care at Pontefract and in the community.”

The document says: “Subject to individual clinical assessment, this would give women across the Wakefield district the choice of birthing at home, in an alongside midwife led unit at Pinderfields, in the labour ward at Pinderfields, or in the freestanding midwife led unit at Dewsbury.”

WDHCP had agreed to the permanent closure of the unit on January 9 this year.

But days later, Wakefield Council’s NHS scrutiny committee referred the decision back to WDHCP, calling for a fresh consultation with the public.

Councillors were critical of the decision, accusing local NHS decision makers of ‘deliberately running down’ the service to justify its closure.

Scrutiny committee chair Elizabeth Rhodes said at the time: “This gives an opportunity for the public to now have their say.

“This is all that we can do through our committee. That’s the importance of proper scrutiny.”

Ms Rhodes added: “The committee made it plain that the [consultation] process had not been followed.”

The last public engagement on potential closure was carried out in 2018 and 2019.

Yvette Cooper, Labour MP for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley, has also called for the centre to stay open, saying parents had been “let down”.

The NHS said the number of births at Pontefract was “lower than expected” so it could not justify midwives being deployed there.

A report said about 200 women a year gave birth at Pontefract before the unit’s suspension and midwives continued to work at centres where the numbers were higher.

The cost of the consultation is expected to cost between £35,000 and £40,000.