Mums 'devastated' over Melton birthing centre closure
A decision's been made today
Mums and campaigners say they are “devastated” after NHS bosses decided to close a Leicestershire birth centre.
The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (LLR ICB) met at Melton Borough Council today (March 19) to decide the future of St Mary’s Birth Centre in Melton.
Despite strong feelings from mums, campaigners and councillors, the board went ahead with the recommendation to close the centre, even considering “strong local feedback” from the residents of Melton and surrounding areas to keep it open.
NHS chiefs met to decide the future of St Mary’s after a report found that the centre carried out 92 births in 2024/25, prompting hospital bosses to conclude it was no longer sustainable to keep it open.
Bosses found that it was “difficult for staff to maintain consistent exposure to the full range of clinical situations that are essential for safe practice” and before the centre closed in July last year, around 30 per cent of the team was “unavailable due to maternity leave, long-term sickness, or other planned absences”.
The meeting heard an impassioned speech from Melton Labour councillor Helen Cliff, who urged the board to rethink the planned closure after campaigning for the centre for over two decades.
During the meeting, NHS chiefs acknowledged the emotions of members of the public and campaigners, and echoed many of the concerns in the report, but eventually deemed the number of births, and staffing issues, at St Mary’s to be neither “safe” nor “sustainable”.
Questions and concerns were also raised about how the relocation to the Leicester Royal Infirmary would affect mothers, following a 2024 Care Quality Commission report that found it “requires improvement” compared to St Mary’s Centre’s “good” rating.
Questions also raised concerns that the centre may have been “under-promoted” during its time, which may have led to the low birth rates and staffing pressures.
Richard Michell, chief executive of University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, said the decision had been “difficult” but also called the change “important”.
He said: “I’m sorry for the impact and the impact it is having on people but I do believe that the right decision has been reached. I do know how significant the service is at St Mary’s and has been for families and colleagues.
“This recommendation is in line with many maternity decisions already made across the NHS at the moment about safety, sustainability and staffing.”
Toby Sanders, chief executive of the integrated care board, also said during the meeting that decisions around the centre reached a “tipping point”.
He said he was “conscious” that Melton had been going through a “difficult period”, referencing the decision not to add a second GP surgery in the town.
After the meeting, campaigner Anna Foster told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that she had “a lot of disappointment” and felt that the planned closure was “on the cards in July”.
She added: “It means so much to so many women. How do you replicate a culture like St Mary’s? I don’t think you can
“I feel like it has been a bit of lip service”.
Helen Cliff said she was “devastated but not surprised” by the decision and felt that Melton was being “overlooked” by the NHS.
She said: “I heard nothing in that meeting that persuades me that they were ever going to do anything different, and the language of a ‘temporary pause’ last summer was disingenuous from the start.
“Women are going to have less choice about how they give birth and where they give birth. That is very difficult to dress up as anything other than a reduction in care and service options”.
Maria Laffan, chief nursing officer at the LLR ICB, said that the feedback received was “really important”.
She said: “The reality of what we’ve heard this morning is the service at St Mary’s, whilst it was important … it has to be a safe service and the services we commission must be safe and appropriate for our population.
“What we’ve heard this morning is reduced birth numbers, concerns around staffing and people with the right skillset to be able to support mums and their families, and the safety of babies is absolutely paramount.
“We’re not in a position to continue to support a service in that way therefore the decision this morning is absolutely around safety”.