‘Gagged’midwives speak out

They claim the introduction of a midwife-led unit with daytime consultant cover only will eventually result in the full closure of the department.

And now they are calling on the public to “come out in their droves” and ask “hard questions” of the trust which runs the hospital and the Government-backed Success Regime when it reveals its plans for the future of maternity services on Monday.

A public meeting was held last night, organised by Copeland MP Jamie Reed in Whitehaven’s United Reformed Church, which was expected to pull in hundreds of people, including a large number of midwives.

Speaking exclusively to The Whitehaven News , one of midwives – who wished to remain anonymous – said a staff engagement meeting had been called at the last minute with Stephen Eames, chief executive of the North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust; Maurya Cushlow, nursing and midwifery director at the trust; and Anna Stabler, deputy nursing director. Midwives were told, she said, to “keep quiet’’ about expressing their views on the proposals.

“They called us unprofessional and emotional,” she added, “due to how vocal we have been at public meetings and on social media.

“We are angry and scared. Angry because the trust has said that a midwife-led unit is what we want – it is not. It even made it into a report that ‘midwives agree services now aren’t sustainable’ – no midwife has said this.

“And we are scared for our jobs, scared we’ll have to commute to Carlisle, scared to work in a midwife-led unit where the transfer time is one hour and 40 minutes, scared for our registrations if something goes wrong in the back of an ambulance and scared for our mental health if that happens.

“We are emotional on the issue. Many of us are mothers and/or have family of child-bearing age so are service users as well as staff. We have to deal with the women – uncertain of what will happen to their care.’’

The Success Regime, working along

side NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group, will be releasing its formal consultation document into local healthcare on Monday. One proposal is a midwife-led unit with consultant-led care only between 8am-8pm.

The midwife said: “We need people to come out in their droves for the public consultation – we are being gagged but they can’t gag the public. We need people to go and ask the hard questions, including the statistics that show this transport time is safe.

“We need the evidence they are basing their information on.

“We do support a midwife-led unit as we treat all low-risk in this manner already, but for the safety of the West Cumbrian population a midwife-led unit close to a consultant-led unit is needed.’’

The midwives are calling on pregnant women to “go and ask them about ‘choice of place of birth’ all of which is in the ethos of the NHS and so states NICE guidelines and the Royal College of Medicine.

“What choice are they getting? A midwife-led unit with a crazy transport time if something goes wrong? Nobody will choose this.”

And she added: “By giving us a midwife-led unit they are putting us on a path of full closure.

“People need to show they care and not assume other people will go to the meetings. We need everyone’s help.’’

Stephen Eames said: “The trust actively encourages our staff to openly raise any concerns they may have through the appropriate channels which we widely promote. In addition, we absolutely want our staff to be engaged in shaping our future through the upcoming public consultation and welcome their involvement.

“In line with all NHS organisations, we have a social media policy in place which is there to protect both our staff and our patients. As NHS employees, we all have professional code of conducts to follow which we have a responsibility to comply with at all times.

“Future maternity options will be part of the upcoming public consultation when we will invite members of the public and our staff to share their views on the options which will be put forward.”