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05
Nov 2019
Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals Trust birth centre and stroke unit to close due to staff shortages
A birth centre and beds in a stroke unit are set to close due to staff shortages at Pontefract hospital.
The trust have said it would close the Friarwood Birth Centre until October 2020 “on the grounds of safety” and that they are also closing 12 of the 42 beds at the hospital’s stroke and rehabilitation unit.
Chief executive of the trust Martin Barkley, said the hospital was struggling with recruitment in a “national shortage of midwives”.
He added “Nor is it fair to our staff to continue to stretch our midwifery resource so thinly.”
The trust said that they would still offer midwifery-led facilities at Dewsbury Hospital and Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, and that it would continue to run antenatal and postnatal clinics at Pontefract. They said that the closure would be reviewed next autumn.
Yvette Cooper, MP for Castleford, Normanton and Pontefract, said “It’s an absolute disgrace that our midwife-led maternity unit is set to close for nearly a year due to a national shortage of midwives. She added that she had discussed the matter with Health Secretary Matt Hancock, “but he has completely failed to do anything about it”.
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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
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