Mums in labour turned away as maternity units close doors

Mums in labour are being sent to hospitals 60 miles from their local maternity wards, with one NHS trust closing its maternity units to new admissions 45 times this year. The North West Anglia Foundation Trust shut the Peterborough City Hospital maternity unit 40 times between January and October, with Huntingdon’s Hinchingbrooke Hospital maternity ward also closed on five occasions. Expectant mothers have been sent to other hospitals on 115 occasions this year, figures released under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act reveal.Peterborough City Hospital’s maternity unit was closed to new admissions for a total of 479 hours in 2022 – the equivalent of 20 days. This does not include 15 occasions when the length of closure was not recorded. Expectant mums were diverted as far away as Darent Valley in Kent – 77 miles from Hinchingbrooke and 101 miles from Peterborough – Nottingham, between 60 and 70 miles away from the North West Anglia hospitals, and Lincoln, a drive of 50 to 70 miles. In September, Northamptonshire mum Eilish McKinney gave birth on the sofa with just two paracetamol after being told her local hospital Peterborough was full and could not take her. Ms McKinney was told to travel 35 miles to Leicester Hospital because that was the closest maternity unit with space. The journey would have taken an hour, so the couple decided to improvise and Ms McKinney gave birth at home shortly before paramedics arrived.  Eilish McKinney gave birth at home on the sofa after a local maternity unit was too full. (Image: BBC) Peterborough City Hospital maternity unit was closed 40 times this year. (Image: PA)Another mum-to-be was turned away from the Peterborough maternity unit – and three other maternity wards – because they were not enough midwives.Barbara Job, 25, called the unit when her waters broke but was told there was not enough staff to ensure a safe delivery and they should look elsewhere.She was met with the same response at Hinchingbrooke Hospital and the Rosie Hospital in Cambridge, and eventually ended up at Leicester Hospital. All of the closures at Peterborough were down to staffing and acuity problems, along with instances when neonatal intensive care was closed and when closing was necessary to allow for booked elective procedures to be carried out. At Hinchingbrooke, room availability, capacity and operation issues in theatre were also blamed for the closures, which spanned more than 27 hours. READ MORE: Pensioner accuses council of wanting her to ‘downsize into a coffin’ Baby Persy was born at home after mum Eilish McKinney was told the hospital didn’t have space. (Image: BBC) Mothers in labour were faced with long drives to find maternity units with space for them. (Image: Getty)Both Peterborough City Hospital and Hinchingbrooke Hospital’s maternity units were rated as requiring improvement in their most recent CQC inspections, in December 2019 and October 2018 respectively. The North West Anglia Foundation Trust is short of almost 30 midwives – 29.6 whole-time equivalent posts – excluding five positions it is currently recruiting for. A report on midwife staffing published in October painted a bleak picture of services at breaking point and staff that are overworked, burnt out and stressed. The Royal College of Midwives has warned a severe shortage of staff in maternity services is putting mothers’ and babies’ lives at risk. Both units saw an increase in “red flag events” over the year. According to The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), red flag events are signs there may not be enough midwives available to give women and babies the care they need, for example having to wait more than 30 minutes to get pain relief or over an hour to be given stitches.There were 614 red flag events at the delivery ward of Peterborough City Hospital in 2022 to date, rising from 31 in January to 146 in October. In transitional care at the same hospital, there was just one red flag event in January and 23 in October. DON’T MISS:Gran fined for using pub car park to collect and drop off grand kids [REVEALED]Awe as massive Canadian warship is spotted docked at UK port [PHOTOS]Kate Middleton receives sweet gift as she visits Ukrainian refugees [VIDEO] Mums-to-be were sent to hospitals 60 miles away. (Image: Getty)The trend was less pronounced at Hinchingbrooke Hospital, where 173 red flag events were recorded during the year in the labour ward. The rate was lowest in February with 5 events and peaked in September with 38.Jo Bennis, chief nurse for North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust said: ‘The safety of babies and women is an absolute priority for us.’Like other maternity units we have seen an increase in the number of women with complex conditions, which requires a greater level of care.’We have taken a variety of measures to address our recruitment challenges and as a result have seen an improvement in staffing in November compared to the previous months.’