Maternity wards in England shut 382 times in 2016 alone

Responding to a Freedom of Information request, 42 out of 96 trusts said they had temporarily closed maternity wards on a total of 382 occasions.

The data, obtained by the Labour Party, suggests that more than 40 per cent of wards closed their doors to expectant mothers at least once last year.

It shows that maternity units were closed on 382 separate occasions in 2016, compared with 375 in 2015 and 225 in 2014.

Some were closed overnight, while others lasted more than 24 hours.

The most common reasons given were too few staff and not enough beds, but the government said closures are ‘well rehearsed’ and it was ‘misleading’ to say they were down to staff shortages.

The Royal College of Midwives said that sometimes it was correct to close a unit and divert new admissions, such as when the safety of mothers and babies already being treated in the hospital might be compromised. But doing this regularly could reflect underlying problems with the number of expert staff.

40 of the 136 hospital trusts in England did not respond to the requests.

The Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust did, saying it closed its maternity unit on 30 occasions in 2016 because of ‘insufficient midwifery staffing for workload’, while Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust said it closed its unit five times, once for 14.5 hours to ‘maintain safety and staffing levels’.

Jonathan Ashworth, shadow health secretary, said: “These findings show the devastating impact which Tory underfunding is having for mothers and children across the country.

"The uncertainty for so many women just when they need the NHS most is unthinkable."

Sean O’Sullivan, from the Royal College of Midwives, said: “If units are regularly and persistently having to close their doors, it suggests there is an underlying problem around capacity and staffing levels that needs immediate attention.”

A Department of Health spokesman said there were now more than 2,000 additional midwives compared with May 2010, and 6,500 currently in training.

He said: “Temporary closures in NHS maternity units are well rehearsed safety measures, which we expect trusts to use to safely manage peaks in admissions.

“To use these figures as an indication of safe staffing issues, particularly when a number of them could have been for a matter of hours, is misleading because maternity services are unable to plan the exact time and place of birth for all women in their care.”