Birthing service move away from Causeway Hospital 'not a signal of closure' says Northern Trust

The Northern Trust has insisted that a decision to move birthing services from Causeway Hospital is not an attempt to downgrade the facility or signal its closure.

It comes after senior officials at the trust met with campaigners from the Save Our Service Causeway group on Friday.

The proposal to move birthing services to Antrim Area from next week has been controversial, with the trust stating that it's "necessary" and the result of a decline in birthing figures in the area.

Speaking to UTV, SOS Causeway campaigner, Gemma Brolly said: "We believe that we have every bit as much right to access labour wards, birthing facilities at Causeway Coast and Glens as we have anywhere else, it is a human right to access that and we will continue to fight to do that.

"We are very concern, especially when you look to our neighbouring acute hospitals and what's going on.

"We did ask questions today, we were given assurances that there is complete commitment to the future of Causeway Hospital, so we have asked for a long term plan to detail those assurances, something we can take back to the community that can give us heart that we can, and should not, and will not again feel like second-class citizens that we will have commitment to our hospital like any other."

In a statement issued after Friday's meeting, the trust said it "welcomed" the opportunity to provide assurances to campaigners.

"By reconfiguring our maternity services – consolidating all hospital births at Antrim Area Hospital – we are following the recommendation of senior clinicians," the statement read.

"When they advise us that this is in the best interests of mothers and babies, we have a responsibility to listen.

"This decision does not mean we wish to downgrade Causeway Hospital and it in no way signals its closure.

"We want that message to be very clear for our community, our service users and patients, and also our staff.

"Causeway Hospital has a very bright future ahead, demonstrated by our continued investment in services there.

"As we have previously stated, we remain committed to maintaining acute services and an Emergency Department at Causeway.

"We are also working closely with colleagues at the Department of Health to explore and plan the further development of diagnostic services to support emergency, elective and cancer services.

"As a Trust providing health and social care services in our community, it is important that we best serve the changing demographic of the area’s population which is why we have made significant investment in enhancing our ambulatory and frailty care services at Causeway Hospital.

"Following the transfer of hospital births to Antrim Area Hospital, preparations are also underway to provide enhanced antenatal clinics at Causeway Hospital so that pregnant women will have access to complex antenatal care.

"This means that some women will no longer have to travel to Antrim for antenatal appointments. We also want to assure pregnant women that we will continue to support home births.

"In addition, Causeway has adopted the Continuity of Midwifery Care model which has been in place since 2020. This provides a woman with care from the same midwife or team of midwives during pregnancy, birth and the early parenting period, as well as obstetric and other specialist care as needed.

"We acknowledge the very passionate campaign by SOS Causeway. We trust that today’s meeting has provided reassurance that we do in fact share the same goal.

"We too are passionate about the future of Causeway Hospital and today we restated our commitment to it remaining a key part of our acute hospital network."

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