Home births to resume in Gloucestershire but no date for maternity unit
Health chiefs say a clearer timeline for the Aveta birth centre is expected in November
The NHS home birth service in Gloucestershire is expected to return before Christmas, but there is frustration that no date has been set to reopen the maternity unit in Cheltenham.
The Aveta birth centre at Cheltenham General Hospital was closed temporarily in 2022 because of staff shortages and the need to ensure safety.
The home birth service was suspended across the county in November last year after safety concerns were raised by staff, according to health chiefs.
They said at the time that safety, the need to train up midwives and a review of their maternity model were the reasons for the suspension.
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust announced in May that good progress had been made, but there was still more to do to be able to reopen safely.
It said then that the home birth service would not resume until the autumn.
The trust now says it is planning to reopen the service before Christmas.
It said last month that the Cheltenham maternity unit would reopen by the end of the autumn.
However, there is frustration among councillors that a date to reopen the birth unit in the spa town has yet to be set.
Update to councillors
The trust's deputy chief executive, Al Sheward, gave an update at Gloucestershire County Council's health overview and scrutiny committee on 13th October.
He referred to the latest Care Quality Commission report and acknowledged there is still a lot of work to do.
The report identified areas where improvements are needed around maternity triage, incident management and aspects of leadership governance.
It also said Stroud Maternity Hospital is in a good position.
Mr Sheward said: "At Stroud maternity, the picture was particularly encouraging with the service improving to good across all five domains of the inspectorate assessment."
"They highlighted strong safeguarding arrangements at Stroud, effective governance and consistently positive feedback from women and families who access the service."
"Taken together the report shows we are certainly on the right path with maternity."
"It shows we are certainly moving in the right direction and they acknowledge the progress that has been made while recognising there has to be a continued focus on improvements."
Changes to home births
Mr Sheward went on to explain the changes that are taking place to offer women more choice about where they give birth.
He said: "There's currently no confirmed reopening date but we plan to introduce home birthing before Christmas."
"But I did just want to set that in the context of the size of the piece of work that has been undertaken."
"We have consulted with over 130 midwives and the time that has taken has been considerable."
"It also requires midwives to be more flexible and some will move from the community to the acute trust and some will move from the acute trust out to the community but all in the spirit of offering women better choice to deliver in their preferred location."
Calls for continued scrutiny
The committee agreed to keep maternity services as a regular agenda item at its meetings.
Councillor Richard Dean (Green, Dursley) was among those who want to continue to scrutinise the services.
He said the Aveta unit in Cheltenham is supposed to be opening.
Councillor Rebecca Trimnell (Liberal Democrat, Westgate) said she would like to see the committee look more closely at different aspects of maternity services.
She said: "At the moment we are seeing this overall which is all very good, but as a scrutiny committee we could look at it in a more detailed way."
Councillor Milly Hill (Labour, Cam East) agreed with the views of the previous speakers.
She said: "We've heard the work through, I'd like to see the results."
Call for a date for the Cheltenham unit
Towards the end of the debate, Councillor Paul Hodgkinson (Liberal Democrat, Bourton-on-the-Water and Northleach) said it was too early to stop scrutinising maternity services at each meeting.
He said: "We have to collectively make sure we are holding the NHS to account in a constructive way because there have been so many concerns raised and it has been such a high profile issue."
Councillor Hodgkinson said both he and Cheltenham MP Max Wilkinson are concerned there is no specific date for opening the Aveta birth centre.
He said: "We were promised earlier this year it would be in September. So we've gone through September, we are halfway through October."
"I think we do need a date."
Mr Sheward said the trust can say with some certainty that home births will be reintroduced before Christmas.
He said it would be too early for him to say when the birth unit will reopen.
He expects to be able to give councillors a much clearer timeline in November.