Hospital maternity unit reopening date delayed
BBCThe reopening of a hospital's maternity services has been delayed by health bosses.
Birthing services at North Devon District Hospital (NDDH) in Barnstaple have been closed since 11 August due to staffing issues, meaning pregnant women face a 53-mile (85km) trip to Exeter to give birth.
The Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, had provisionally planned to reopen the services on 29 September. Bosses have now said the service would remain closed as they were not in a position to reopen as anticipated.
The trust has not set a new provisional opening date, but said it would complete another assessment on 28 September and every two weeks after if needed.
The trust said despite "extensive efforts", including a national recruitment campaign, it was unable to meet the agreed staffing threshold needed to safely reopen the services, which are used by pregnant women in Devon and Cornwall.
A spokesperson said the trust remained committed to keeping maternity services at the hospital and had formally requested support from the wider NHS.
They said the trust was also exploring international recruitment.
Dr Vanessa Purday, the trust's chief medical officer, said it was "deeply disappointing" not to be able to reopen the unit.
She said: "Whilst we've made good progress and we have recruited to both our consultant and registrar voters.
"We don't have the numbers of doctors we need to do reopen safely and keep the service open safely.
"We also need to make sure that for those doctors who have joined us are able to complete all the on-boarding checks that we need to do to make sure that they can meet the requirements of the role."
Purday said the 29 September date was "always conditional" on final staffing and safety assurances, adding it "remains safer" to keep the suspension in place.
"This is not a decision to permanently close birthing services at NDDH," she added.
"We remain fully committed to reopening the service and will continue to be open and transparent about our progress, the challenges we face and the steps we're taking to address them."
'North Devon deserves better'
Siobhan Strode, a member of campaign group North Devon Maternity Matters, said she "did a big eye roll" when she heard about the reopening delay.
She said it was frustrating for families in North Devon and felt the recruitment plan the trust had put together had felt a bit "pie in the sky".
"Call me a sceptic, but I didn't think the reopening was going to happen," the mother-of-three from Burrington said.
Strode said the group wanted to have transparency and know what was being done to make sure it did not happen again.
She said: "I can imagine how frustrating this would be as a parent waiting to have a baby.
"It's such a rollercoaster without all of this stress and we need the trust to know that North Devon deserves better."
Siobhan StrodeNorth Devon MP Ian Roome said, while several new doctors had been found to staff the unit, the trust was still one consultant short of what was needed.
The Liberal Democrat said he believed the trust was vetting candidates, but they would not be able to start before the original target reopening date.
He added the next possible reopening date would be in mid-October.
Roome said: "Nearly 100 women have been redirected to Exeter to give birth and this is unacceptable.
"I've been speaking to the trust every single day and I've made it 100% clear that this suspension cannot drag on for a single hour longer than strictly necessary."
Fellow Lib Dem Ben Maguire, MP for North Cornwall, said the temporary closure of services had left families facing "severe disruption and anxiety".
"Patients and families cannot be left in limbo indefinitely like this," Maguire said.
"The trust needs to urgently get the support it needs to recruit the staff required and give expectant mothers some certainty."
