Health board criticised for not live-streaming decision to shut Pontefract birthing unit

Health chiefs were told how members of the public affected by the closure of the facility at Pontefract Hospital were “very concerned” at not being able to follow the decision-making process remotely.

On Tuesday (January 9) Wakefield District Health and Care Partnership (WDHCP) committee voted to permanently close the unit at Friarwood Birth Centre.

The meeting was held at WDHCP headquarters at White Rose House, in Wakefield city centre.

Two days later, Wakefield Council’s NHS scrutiny committee referred the decision back to health chiefs, calling for fresh public consultation to be carried out.

Yvette Cooper, MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, has also demanded that the decision be reconsidered.

At the scrutiny meeting, committee chair Elizabath Rhodes said she had been contacted by people concerned at not being able to view the WDCHP meeting online.

Coun Rhodes said council leader Denise Jeffery and chief executive Andrew Balchin had also been informed.

She told WDHCP members who attended: “I was contacted by phone on Tuesday evening, after your board meeting.

“I was disappointed, given that this was such an important topic, that somehow, somewhere, somebody decided not to live-stream the meeting.

“I think it should have been recognised that there were people out there in the south-east of the district who would have been interested in being able to listen in.”

Ruth Unwin, director strategy at WDHCP, said the partnership’s committee meetings are open to the public but not live-streamed.

Coun Rhodes continued: “It would have been in the interest of the public, because it is supposed to be a public meeting.

“Did nobody consider that, with this sensitive issue going to this board meeting, it would have been in the interest of the public?

“If everybody from Pontefract and Castleford and all of the south east (of the district) would have tried to get into the board meeting at White Rose House, you would be out in the car park,

“It would have been easier to live-stream so people could have been part of it.

“Because you want communications and yet there is no communication.”

Ms Unwin said WDHCP’s policy on public attendance of meetings is similar to Wakefield Council’s.

Coun Rhodes replied: “We do have live-streaming and they are open to the public.”

Wakefield Council regularly live-streams full council and cabinet meetings.

Other meetings, such as planning, licensing and scrutiny committee meetings, are not live-streamed but are open for the public to attend.

Ms Unwin said Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust meetings, including one held earlier in that day, were live-streamed.

Coun Rhodes said: “I’m not talking about Mid Yorkshire. I’m talking about the (WDHCP) board meeting where people were very concerned that they could not attend. I think that was a very retrograde step.”

The centre was temporarily shut in 2019 “on the grounds of clinical safety” due to a midwife shortage.

The NHS also said the number of births at Pontefract was lower than expected so it could not justify midwives being deployed there.

Before the suspension, around 200 women a year gave birth at Pontefract.

Maternity provision will continue to be prioritised at Pinderfields Hospital, with full ante-natal and post-natal care services remaining at Pontefract.