Births may be temporarily suspended at North Devon Hospital next month
A shortage of senior doctors has led to the Royal Devon University Trust planning the suspension of services.
Births at North Devon District Hospital could be temporarily suspended from the eleventh of August, because of a shortage of senior doctors.
The Royal Devon University Hospital Trust says it can’t guarantee safe consultant cover beyond that date, and is now planning for a pause in maternity services.
Pregnant women will be contacted and supported with alternative arrangements, and the Trust says it’s doing all it can to reopen the unit as soon as possible.
Vanessa Purday, Royal Devon Chief Medical Officer, said, “This is an enormous decision and one we feel the weight of in our community.
“We are extremely concerned about our maternity consultant and medical cover at NDDH. The service at NDDH has been reliant on locum and agency cover for some time and recent additional staffing shortages and absence have tipped the balance into it being unsafe to continue beyond 11 August."
“Our RD&E and NDDH maternity teams have worked so hard and held this service together for many months, working extra and longer hours to ensure our families got the care they needed. However, despite our best efforts we cannot staff our medical rota from August."
“A key priority now is ensuring that those women and families who are due to give birth receive timely, accurate information about their options, and are fully supported to make choices that are right for them. We don’t have all that detail yet but will be issuing it as soon as we can.”
The trust says this is a planned temporary suspension and they are doing all they can to reopen the unit as soon as possible. They are being advised by other NHS Trusts that have successfully reopened services following temporary suspensions. Additionally, they say they will continue to focus on recruitment, training and workforce stabilisation to get the service back open.