Councillor Call for Action on maternity services

10.36.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 19th Oct 2009

The councillor Call for Action which raised concerns about the imminent removal of the consultant led maternity delivery service from Maidstone Hospital to Pembury, which was debated at Tuesday's MBC External Scrutiny Committee, was called by Fran Wilson, High Street Ward councillor and leader of Maidstone's Liberal Democrat Group

She opened the debate by saying that:

"The people of Maidstone are entitled to, and demand their own excellent general hospital with a full range of core services. Obstetrics is a core service and full consultant led maternity delivery is an intrinsic part of obstetric care."

Our view is that a full maternity service should be delivered at both Pembury and Maidstone - it is unreasonable and cruel to subject women with an unforeseen problem, no matter where they live, to an ambulance journey along a single lane, bumpy, often congested, unlit road to reach a consultant capable of dealing with their birth complication.

If, however, the Trust is insistent that this service can only be located in one centre then the arguments for its location at Maidstone are overwhelming. Maidstone has the higher population, Maidstone has the highest rate of live births out of all twelve Kent districts and has done so for every year since 1981. While Maidstone shows to advantage when looking at deprivation with two thirds of our population living in areas classified as amongst the least deprived 40% nationally this masks a serious problem. Three of our Wards consistently figure within the top 20% of most deprived areas in Kent, in the South East and nationally. We have also been dubbed the teenage pregnancy capital of Europe. Both deprivation and teenage pregnancy are factors contributing to complications in births. The original arguments used in favour of this decision were made in 2004 - much has changed since then, not least the growth in population in the South East which is set to continue and we are told maternity services are already 'overloaded' in Kent.

Fran said," Maternity is not an illness in the usual sense. Half the population are women and a goodly proportion of them have already had children. They know what it is like to give birth, they know their own bodies and for the hospital authorities to ignore their views and to tell them that the "Experts" know best is patronising. To date we have received 1,911 letters and there are now over 3000 postings on Peter Carroll's maternity facebook site. I think this says it all. Many correspondents have told of their own experiences. They know they wouldn't have made it to Pembury and they want a full consultant led maternity delivery service to stay in Maidstone. Our healthcare services are supposed to be patient led. I think we should be listening to them."

Mr Alan Pentecost the obstetrician, now retired who first set up Maidstone's Hospital maternity service and Helen Terrell a Maidstone GP and representative of the British Medical Association spoke in support of Councillor Fran Wilson. Helen Terrell said the BMA was totally opposed to Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust's proposals. She further stated that all the midwives at Maidstone were opposed to the change.

MASH has also heard from consultants and midwives regarding their rejection of these proposals but they cannot say so in public. The chairman of the committee, Cllr Eric Hotson told Steve Phoenix, Chief Executive NHS West Kent and Glenn Douglas, Chief Executive Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, that they should ask themselves why this was and why there was this almost total opposition from the medical staff to the decision.

It is clear the hospital authorities do not wish to reconsider however the committee did get an assurance that the statistical evidence would be revisited and that the committee would get answers to questions asked as long ago as 2004 when the original consultation took place. A consultation that Fran Wilson pointed out had been universally regarded as 'flawed' at the time.

What next? Letters of support are still coming in to the Lib Dem office and Peter Carroll is taking them to Westminster. The letter will be handed over to the Secretary for State for Health, Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP with a request that the Trusts's decision should be called in for review. Peter has invited the members of MASH to accompany him.

The MBC External O&S committee are also writing to KCC as the official health scrutiny organisation with a request that they too write to the Secretary for State asking that the decision be reviewed since MBC are precluded from doing it for themselves..

Peter Carroll said "In the meantime we need everyone's continued support - only by showing an overwhelming opposition to the removal of the consultant led maternity service from Maidstone to Pembury will we stand any chance of success."