Staff shortage forces maternity unit to close to admissions

The Maternity Unit at the Royal Oldham Hospital has been closed to admissions on two occasions in the past week because of a staff shortage – despite staff from the Rochdale Infirmary being transferred there when the maternity services at Rochdale were withdrawn.

The unit at Oldham was closed on Saturday night (30 July) and Monday night (1 August) because the staff shortage led to safety fears.

The news comes less than two months after services were transferred from the Rochdale Infirmary to the Royal Oldham as part of the ‘Making it Better’ programme.

The unit is now used by women from Rochdale as well as Oldham.

Hospital bosses have previously stated that moving the service from Rochdale to Oldham would mean that expectant mums would receive an “improved service” as well as offering “benefits” to the staff.

Just days before the move back in June, the Pennine Acute Trust urged parents to “see the bigger picture” – a sentiment Rochdale Online readers disagreed with.

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/57792/readers-disagree-that-childrens-and-maternity-move-will-offer-benefits

Health campaigner and Councillor, Jean Ashworth, said: “Where are all the Rochdale staff? 

“It is quite serious to think that so early on it has had to close.

“It is quite worrying.”

Councillor Ashworth said the decision was made to close the ward to admissions over safety fears; the ward reopened on Sunday despite the shortage but was forced to close again on Monday.

Cathy Trinick, divisional director and former head of midwifery at Pennine Acute Trust, said: “Over the weekend 35 women were admitted to the Labour Ward at The Royal Oldham Hospital. All the babies were delivered by the experienced midwifery and obstetric team at Oldham.

"An unusually high number of staff phoned in sick at very short notice.  We tried very hard to get replacements quickly but were not able to. This meant that we had to telephone four women before they left home and ask them to go to a neighbouring hospital, where they gave birth safely.  I understand that the late change of hospital will have been a disappointment to them and I apologise for this.

"We transferred the Rochdale maternity unit to Oldham at the end of June to create a single, larger unit in preparation for the opening of the new maternity super-centre in 2012 and to reduce the unacceptably high number of diverts we had up to that time.  We had to divert patients between our hospitals 24 times in the first three months of 2011, but only 7 times in the last 4 months.  This shows that creating larger centres is successful, although we can never eliminate diversions particularly when staff call in sick at very short notice.  The safety of mums-to-be and their babies is always our first priority."