Weston MP’s Concerns Over Maternity Unit’s Future

Weston’s MP John Penrose has called for the CCG to investigate why so few expectant mothers are choosing to use Weston Hospital’s Maternity Unit.

John Penrose has written to the CCG following their report which placed a question mark over the future of the unit. The report said that because just 170 out of more than 1300 expectant mothers are choosing to use Weston’s maternity services, well short of the 500 a year usually regarded as a minimum economic size, the unit’s future could be in doubt.

John Penrose said: “It’s peculiar that in a town of Weston’s size, only 170 mothers are choosing to give birth in our local Hospital.

“With Health Chiefs saying they’re planning to increase the number of patients getting common or routine treatments and procedures at the hospital, and the number of young families in Weston going up steadily, most people would naturally expect our local maternity unit to be growing rather than shrinking.

“Why should Weston’s expectant mothers have to travel miles further to have their babies than people in Bristol or South Gloucestershire, where the local maternity units are much closer? Or is this another example of treating Weston’s health needs like a poor relation? We need to understand what’s going on, and whether we’re being fair, before making decisions which are crucial for the future health needs of our town.”

Notes To Editors

  • 1,316 is the number of referrals by a GP for an initial assessment at Weston.
  • A map showing new developments and expected population increases surrounding Weston Hospital is attached. The Bristol based Hospitals that would serve as alternatives are outside of the constituency and even North Somerset.
  • Current Maternity Units include:

    Weston General Hospital
    Ashcombe Birth Centre

    North Bristol NHS Trust
    Cossham Hospital Birth Centre
    Southmead Hospital central delivery suite
    Southmead Hospital birth suite

    University Hospitals Bristol
    St Michael’s Hospital

  • Many women who deliver at a neighbouring hospital have all their pre and post-natal checks and appointments locally at Weston hospital.

The letter from John Penrose to the CQC is below:

I’m writing to express my concern about the question mark over the level and type of maternity services in the Weston area, described in the draft Healthy Weston document published by NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Groups.

As the draft document rightly says, Weston and the surrounding villages are a fast-growing population, with a steadily-younger age profile compared to popular (but increasingly out of date) perceptions of a ‘retirement town’. Significant new local housing developments, job-rich projects such as Dolphin Square and Foodworks SW and Hinkley C, and Weston College having just been granted University status, mean this will be a strong and continuing local trend for years. The number of births in our local population is over 1300 a year and will, therefore, keep rising. So demand for maternity and all related medical and social care services will increase rather than decline in future too.

It isn’t just local demand though. The draft document lays out a vision for a local healthcare campus on the Weston Hospital site, with more primary and community health services alongside important increases in the number of patients being treated for many of the more common or routine (but still important) types of secondary hospital care such as hip or knee replacements and other elective surgeries too. By contrast, most of the reductions it envisages are when rare or severe illnesses require specialised treatments where the scale and expertise of a Bristol teaching hospital will give local patients a better chance of recovery. Given that childbirth is both extremely common and, equally importantly, not an illness at all, it seems curious (to put it charitably) to consider putting it into the second category rather than the first.

That isn’t to deny either the scale or the importance of the organisational problem you’re grappling with, of course. The Weston service only handles about 170 births a year at present, rather than the 500+ which would represent clear value for taxpayers money. I know Weston hospital staff intend to suggest alternative models to you which would make the current service better value for money, even at 170 births a year, but I believe we need to answer a more fundamental question too: why are only 170 out of 1300 expectant local mums choosing to have their babies in Weston each year, when a much larger proportion are choosing equivalent midwife-led services elsewhere? If the reason (widely supposed but unproven so far) is that they are advised by medical professionals to give birth in Bristol, because the backup services (eg if a caesarean section is needed) are nearby if something goes wrong, then we must answer further questions: is this advice correct and, if so, does grouping all the backup services towards the northern edge of the area discriminate against a significant and growing number of expectant mothers in and around Weston, requiring more of them to travel far further to give birth than their equivalents in Bristol or South Gloucestershire? And can this unfair treatment be reversed in a way that’s sensible for the taxpayer if so?

I look forward to your reply!

John Penrose

MP for Weston-super-Mare

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