Women to get their say on the future shape of region’s maternity services

The 12-week consultation launched today has been prompted by the closure of the Jubilee birth centre in Cottingham last July, after concerns were raised about staffing levels.

Hospital chiefs have said creating a £500,000 midwifery-led unit alongside existing facilities at Hull Royal Infirmary will allow women who book a midwifery-led birth to be certain of receiving the service.

Dr Dan Roper, a GP and Hull Clinical Commissioning Group’s clinical lead for maternity services, said: “As commissioners of maternity services, we want to ensure that women in Hull have a real choice when it comes to deciding where to have their baby.

“Because each woman’s needs and circumstances will vary, it’s important that we can deliver the right levels of support in a range of different settings.

“Just as importantly, we want to ensure those services are of a high quality and offer the safest possible experience for the whole family.

“We have been developing a series of plans around how this could look in our area, and we’d like to hear from anyone who might have a view on these plans.”

Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which needs to make £95m savings by 2015, has said as many as 1,400 midwifery-led births could take place at the new unit.

According to chief executive Phil Morley, the Jubilee centre had under 350 births a year.

Two-thirds of mothers in the East Riding have their babies delivered at Hull Royal Infirmary – the rest at Scarborough, York, Scunthorpe and Goole or at home.

Gina Palumbo, the chair of the East Riding of Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “The fact the Jubilee centre has closed, which was out of our hands, has given us the opportunity before we go onto look at what (services) we commission, to ensure that we are addressing what matters to women most.”

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