Maternity unit closure could last more than six months

A hospital's birthing service and special care baby unit could remain shut for more than six months after a watchdog flagged safety concerns for babies and children.

Yeovil District Hospital is closing the units on Monday 19 May at 17:00 BST after it was served a warning notice by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for failing to meet staffing regulations in its paediatrics service.

Dr Melanie Iles, chief medical officer at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, said it was "really hard to say whether it will only be six months, or not" as the hospital is "really struggling" with a shortage of senior doctors.

She said the closure was needed, but there was no evidence individual children had been harmed.

Dr Iles told BBC Radio Somerset: "I can't promise it will only be six months - we're working extremely hard to try and achieve that."

Lucie Slater, from Ilchester, was due to give birth at Yeovil in eight weeks time.

She said the sudden closure meant she would have to travel for 35 minutes longer when she does go into labour.

"We've got used to the people and place and now I'll have to go somewhere I've never been that is 45 minutes away rather than 10 minutes away," she said.

Adam Dance, MP for Yeovil, raised the issue in the House of Commons on Wednesday during Prime Minister's Questions and said: "While the closure is initially for six months I have received no guarantee it will open again; this creates huge fear."

In response, Sir Keir Starmer said he would ensure Dance got a meeting with the relevant minster "to get to the bottom of the issue".

Hospital bosses said staff are writing to all pregnant women due to give birth at Yeovil, and that three or four babies a day are born there normally.

Dr Iles said she was "confident" they would be able to manage increased numbers of births at Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital and would "make sure there is appropriate staffing for the increased numbers of women and babies".

Some Yeovil maternity staff will remain there to carry out antenatal appointments while others may relocate to Musgrove Park, Bath or Dorchester hospitals for the closure period.

Dr Iles also sought to reassure heavily pregnant women that the paediatric rotas are "well covered" for the next five days until the closures come in, and said it was "business as usual" at Yeovil until 17:00 on 19 May.

She said there has been a "challenge" to have "the right senior staff who are experienced and present in the hospital at busy times".

"We often have shortages in the number of doctors we have on our rotas," Dr Iles said, and the hospital has been "patching together" rotas but that was "not sustainable in the longer term".

"Last week we were in a situation where we had four consultant doctors off sick at the same time, and three locums helping to cover the service. However good a locum is, it's not quite the same as doctors who are used to working in a team and in a hospital," Dr Iles said.

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