Pontefract Hospital shuts down birth centre due to midwife shortage

Pontefract Hospital's maternity unit is to close for 11 months “on the grounds of safety” due to midwife shortages.

The long-term fate of the Friarwood Birth Centre has been in doubt for over a year, with the trust struggling to recruit midwives.

While 5,700 women give birth at Pinderfields Hospital a year, less than 200 do at Pontefract.

The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust said the midwifery unit will close from Friday November 8 until September next year. However it said the decision did not preempt discussions about its long-term future.

Earlier this year Pontefract MP Yvette Cooper presented a 1,000-name petition to protect the maternity unit, saying mums should have a choice rather than having to go to Pinderfields, which is already overstretched.

Ms Cooper tweeted that the decision to close the unit was "appalling".

She posted: "The Tories have completely failed for 10 years to recruit the midwives our NHS needs & it is local mums & families who are paying the price."

Martin Barkley, the trust's chief executive, said the hospital was struggling to recruit in a "national shortage of midwives".

“Despite having been delighted to recruit 15 midwives from the cohort of newly qualified midwives that join the NHS at this time every year, it has not been enough to ensure we have an adequate number of midwives across three midwife-led units and our obstetric service based at Pinderfields Hospital.

"It is therefore challenging to consistently provide the excellent standard of service we strive to provide for our mums-to-be; nor is it fair to our staff to continue to stretch our midwifery resource so thinly.

The trust would still offer midwifery-led facilities at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield and Dewsbury Hospital, it said.

It would continue to run antenatal and postnatal clinics at Pontefract and the closure would be reviewed next autumn.