Meeting planned over Pontefract maternity ward closure

Friarwood Birth Centre, in Pontefract, has not reopened since it was temporarily shut in 2019 on the grounds of clinical safety due to midwife shortage.

In January last year, Wakefield District Health and Care Partnership (WDHCP) agreed to permanently close the facility.

The decision was then put on hold following criticism from Wakefield Council’s NHS scrutiny committee.

WDHCP also agreed to carry out a fresh consultation before making a final decision.

The process was delayed due to the general election being called last summer.

Senior WDHCP leaders are expected to meet with the scrutiny committee on January 16 before a 12-consultation is carried out.

The facility, run by the Mid Yorkshire NHS Hospitals Trust, remains closed.

Maternity provision is prioritised at Pinderfields Hospital, with full antenatal and postnatal care services remaining at Pontefract.

The NHS has a statutory duty to consult the public if a service change is introduced for safety reasons.

The consultation is expected to include a proposal to offer a “comprehensive range of antenatal and postnatal care at Pontefract and in the community.”

A report to committee members said: “Subject to individual clinical assessment, this would give women across the Wakefield district the choice of birthing at home, in an alongside midwife led unit at Pinderfields, in the labour ward at Pinderfields, or in the freestanding midwife led unit at Dewsbury.”

WDHCP had agreed to the permanent closure of the unit on January 9 2024.

Days later, the scrutiny committee referred the decision back to WDHCP, calling for a fresh consultation.

Councillors accused local NHS decision makers of ‘deliberately running down’ the service to justify its closure

The last public engagement on potential closure was carried out in 2018 and 2019.

Yvette Cooper, MP for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley, also called for the centre to remain open, saying parents had been “let down”

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

A report said about 200 women a year gave birth at Pontefract before the unit’s suspension and midwives continued to work at centres where the numbers were higher.

The cost of the consultation is expected to cost between £35,000 and £40,000.