Protecting maternity care for North Devon families

Local mothers deserve safe, accessible services close to home, not lengthy trips to hospitals miles away

The suspension of births at North Devon District Hospital has now been in effect for over a week, leaving women facing journeys of up to two hours to give birth.

Hospital staff have confidentially raised serious alarms with me. Local families, like Jemima’s, who joined me on BBC’s Woman’s Hour, are taking the drastic step of relocating to places like Exeter or Bristol just to ensure a safe birth.

Standing with pregnant women and families at the Barnstaple protest made one thing clear: expectant mothers feel anxious and abandoned.

I’ve escalated this crisis to the highest levels, and this week I submitted amendments to the Health Bill to stop maternity closures over staffing, guarantee a unit within 45 minutes for everyone in England, and explicitly protect services at North Devon District Hospital.

These have been signed by our Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson, Helen Morgan MP, and we will push these amendments hard after recess, especially as NHS leaders warn of more maternity unit closures.

The suspension of births at North Devon District Hospital cannot be allowed to become the new normal.

There has, however, been encouraging news.

The Royal Devon University Healthcare Trust has told me there are promising candidates for the specialist roles that need filling. And to help move things on, I am also working with the Home Office to get visa applications accelerated for suitable candidates currently working in other NHS trusts.

But this progress doesn’t change the fact that it should never have got to this point.

Trust documents show the Chief Medical Officer warned as far back as December that consultant shortages threatened the entire maternity service. If that risk was identified then, what action was taken, and how did the situation reach a point where closure appeared so sudden and unavoidable?

I raised these questions directly with the Trust at Devon County Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee and, alongside Ben Maguire MP, have written to the Trust and ICB seeking further answers, including on the safety and cost of forcing women to travel and the timetable for reopening.

The notification of the temporary suspension was embargoed until 27 July; just fifteen days before the closure. It comes against a backdrop of cumulative decisions, including ambulance redirection from South Molton, ward closures, and uncertainty over the Special Care Baby Unit.

Taken together, these decisions have created a growing sense that essential services are being progressively withdrawn across North Devon.

The Trust has assured me that the suspension is temporary, and of their commitment to the future of NDDH as an acute hospital. I will absolutely hold them to that.

The reality is that North Devon is a more challenging area to serve; its rurality, dispersed population, public transport and areas of significant deprivation make it so. But these are precisely the same reasons it’s so important to safeguard our healthcare services.

Tens of thousands of people rely on NDDH, and asking patients to travel significantly further for essential care is not a sustainable solution.

Quite frankly, the situation is unacceptable. It jeopardises the safety of pregnant women and babies, and lets down the brilliant midwives and maternity staff at our hospital who care for them.