Fairfield’s inpatient maternity and children’s services prepare for move

Doctors, midwives and nursing staff at Fairfield General Hospital are preparing to transfer overnight maternity and children’s services from Fairfield General to North Manchester General Hospital on 28 February.

The move will see inpatient maternity, paediatric and neonatal services relocated to the new £35m purpose built women and children’s development at North Manchester General Hospital in Crumpsall which opened in June 2010.

The transfer of services from Fairfield to North Manchester mirrors the changes in Rochdale last summer, when impatient maternity and children’s services were transferred from the Rochdale Infirmary to the Royal Oldham Hospital.

Inpatient maternity at Rochdale closed in June 2011 and since then women from Rochdale have had to travel to Fairfield or the Royal Oldham to have their baby.

The Fairfield closures means that from March this year women in Bury will have to travel to North Manchester General Hospital or The Royal Bolton Hospital.

Other maternity services, including routine outpatient antenatal care and scans, will remain at Fairfield. This includes the hospital’s new Antenatal Day Unit (ANDU). It is hoped the ANDU will limit the need for most women to travel to hospitals outside the area for appointments.

Fairfield’s paediatric observation and assessment unit (POAU) which opened in November 2010 will continue to provide a service seven days a week.

The POAU provides a child friendly environment where children can be cared for by a team of children’s nurses and doctors. The dedicated facilities give specialists up to six hours to assess and treat children, a longer period of time than is possible in an adult A&E department.

Olubusola Amu, consultant obstetrician at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: “The inpatient maternity service at Fairfield General Hospital will no longer be available from early March 2012, but the majority of families should only need to attend a hospital outside Bury for the actual birth of their baby. Most day-to-day maternity care will not change. Routine antenatal and postnatal care will remain at the hospital and at children’s centres and clinics in Bury.

“The Maternity and neonatal units at North Manchester General and The Royal Bolton Hospitals have been expanded and improved to care for pregnant women from Bury and their newborn babies.

“There is additional capacity and staff at these hospitals to ensure that we continue to provide appropriate and safe maternity services.

“For children, more care is being provided at home by an expanded team of children’s community nurses. These nurses help keep children out of hospital or get them home sooner if they do need to be admitted. Overnight hospital care for children in the Bury area will be provided at North Manchester General Hospital where a new children’s unit will provide a first class environment for children and their families.”

Cathy Trinick, Divisional Director for women and children’s services at The Pennine Acute Trust, added: “We are preparing to move services and have robust plans in place so that our inpatient maternity and children’s services and associated staff and equipment can be transferred safely and in an orderly way. An important part of this planning is keeping staff, patients and the public informed. We have written to and are writing again to women affected by the changes.”

Ms Trinick said that tours around the new and expanded units at North Manchester General and The Royal Bolton Hospital are available, so women and their partners can see the new facilities and meet staff. 

Councillor Jean Ashworth said: “It is really sad. It will be a really sad day for Fairfield.

“It will be hit and miss for everybody in Rochdale. It will be like a post code lottery for whoever can be accommodated at the time. It’s not fair.”

The changes to maternity and children’s services at Fairfield General Hospital are part of the Making it Better (MiB) programme.

For more information, patients and expectant women should speak to their community midwife or alternatively may call the Trust’s maternity care helpline on 0161 656 1757 or e-mail on mat.feedback@pat.nhs.uk