Maternity wards more likely to shut at weekends

A new report has found that women in labour are more likely to be turned away from maternity units at weekends and during summer holidays.

Under pressure? NHS maternity services in England, produced by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), highlighted how maternity wards were 30 per cent more likely to turn away new arrivals towards the end of the week because of staff shortages.

The same reason was given for closures or full wards during the summer months, with the IFS reporting that there were 50 per cent more closures in June compared with January, despite the number of births one each month remaining similar.

Freedom of Information requests reveal that, between 2011 and 2015, delivery wards were shut 2,268 times, with a breakdown in the figures showing that obstetric units were 30 per cent more likely to close between Thursdays and Saturdays, compared with Monday to Wednesday.

Elaine Kelly, senior research economist at IFS, said: "NHS Maternity Units are more likely to close towards the end of the week and during holiday periods, pointing to staff availability as a key problem. Such closures may be the most cost efficient way of dealing with pressures but NHS hospital trusts should certainly ensure that such day-of-the-week or seasonal effects are an understood and tolerable consequence of financial restraint, rather than the result of poor workforce management. More generally while the number of women giving birth in the UK is not increasing, NHS Maternity Units are under increasing pressure from the fact that those giving birth increasingly have characteristics associated with, on average, more expensive care needs."

Aside from turning women away, the report also found that maternity units were facing further pressure from an increase in older and obese mothers, who are statistically more likely to have complex health conditions. The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has consequently said that at least 3,500 more midwives are needed to prevent future closures.

Jon Skewes, RCM director for policy, said: “There is a cocktail of a historically high birthrate, increasingly complex births and staff shortages that lead to units closing temporarily. Heads of Midwifery tell us that pressures on services are leading to closures and also to the temporary removal of services such as home births.”