Last week I read with some dismay on the Save Oswestry Maternity Unit Facebook page and subsequently on the Save Bridgnorth Maternity Unit page that the units were going to close because of Staff shortages in Telford. The obvious concern being that this is a cynical strategy to undermine the midwife-led units and soften up protests to the idea of them becoming Birthing Centres. You may recall that Birthing Centres aren’t staffed overnight, where women in Labour must call the units to arrange for them to be opened or place an emergency call for an ambulance to take them A&E, which we all know are facing massive pressures already. Crazy.
The Bridgnorth Group have a meeting set up with Philip Dunn MP who might offer assistance as a Government Health Minister. I hope I am wrong but I expect platitudes and little or no action. Shropshire’s MPs have failed miserably to defend Shropshire’s Corner and ensure Shropshire got it’s fair share under the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) allocation. If Shropshire had received the same STP Allocation as Cornwall then Shropshire’s NHS services would have been better off to the tune of an extra £200m! Cornwall has a similar population to Shropshire but was allocated 24% more money. Shropshire’s Leaders asleep at the wheel it seems.
Shropshire Star article on the closures from last Friday:
'No room at the inn' as crisis shuts four #Shropshire maternity units #shropLL https://t.co/COvIKLTWZZ pic.twitter.com/5txKRYi18N
— Shropshire Star (@ShropshireStar) December 30, 2016
Read the Oswestry Advertiser take on the closures below:
Oswestry maternity unit forced to close overnight because of lack of staffhttps://t.co/dacSS5aucc pic.twitter.com/BNU3X4fRRj
— Oswestry Advertizer (@advertizer) January 4, 2017
If you haven’t signed the petitions of the Government website yet here are the links to both petitions:
Save Bridgnorth and Ludlow Maternity Units
Both petitions are currently running at just under 1,500 signatures at the time of writing this.