Birth centre closure 'shambles'
THE CLOSURE of Wakefield Birth Centre was a 'managerial shambles' the council's health watchdog said yesterday.
As reported in last week’s Express, the city’s only maternity centre was closed temporarily last month after a staffing crisis left it unsafe for mums and babies.
At a meeting of the council’s health and social care overview and scrutiny committee, chairman Coun Betty Rhodes said she had written to Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the centre, to ask for answers as to why they were not informed about the closure.
She said they were legally required to consult the committee if any services were shut because of patient safety.
In an apologetic reply, the trust said 30.3 per cent of staff were absent and the closure was expected for eight weeks.
Coun Rhodes said: “I appreciate in the first instance that safety of mum-to-be is what is paramount but I think that they could have let us know rather than us finding out through newspaper articles or some mums approaching individual councillors. The apology was an after-thought when they were approached and asked why.”
Coun Mike Walker said: “It is a managerial shambles to have 30 per cent absence. Just imagine if that happened at Marks and Spencers, it’s unbelievable.”
Scrutiny officer Andy Wood accused the trust of having ‘no organisational memory,’ referring to three years ago, when the trust intended to close the centre. The decision was overturned after scrutiny referred the matter to the secretary of state.
He said: “They agreed then that they got it fundamentally wrong and it would not happen again.”
Mr Wood added: “You have to be a little bit suspicious about why this has been done. It is going to close in a year anyway and the trust has financial issues, but having said that, if it was for safety issues then it’s right and proper.”
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Weather for Wakefield
Friday 10 February 2012
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