Maternity services in Darlington face temporary closure earlier than expected

Staff shortages at Darlington memorial could be threatening the future of maternity services.

Plans to temporarily centralise the maternity unit here could be brought forward, meaning pregnant women will be forced to travel to Middlesbrough, Stockton or Durham for treatment.

The idea is part of the Sustainability and Transformation plans – at the moment, the plans suggest either Darlington or North Tees will lose it’s A and E status and be downgraded, and we might also lose consultant-led maternity services.

One worker from Darlington Memorial who wishes to remain anonymous spoke to us;

“The Trust are deliberately trying to mislead service users, by suggesting there is a risk to patient safety. There is no evidence to support this and in fact, patient safety incidents on the DMH site have reduced in the last 12 months.  

“It seems coincidental that the timing correlates to the local MP's preoccupation with the upcoming General Election! I feel they've been planning this strategy for some time now, and from what I've heard-it will not be temporary, therefore they have been less than truthful to the Staff, patients and people of Darlington!”

Labour’s Candidate for Darlington, Jenny Chapman, has been leading the campaign to retain maternity services and the A+E at Darlington Memorial for over a year, she tells us she’s not convinced by the Trust;

“It sounds a bit shifty to the public, and it sounds like they’re trying to avoid answering the question one way or another.

“I think there is a lack of openness and candour sometimes around these decisions, and people – it knocks their confidence in what they’re being told.

“Where you fight hard for a service, like our breast clinic, we’ve shown we can win and we just need to fight harder than we’ve ever fought and campaign harder than we ever have to maintain these services because maternity, A+E, they are what make your local hospital your hospital.”

A spokesperson for County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, said, “Patient safety must be our priority. The Trust and the local clinical commissioning groups have a duty to regularly assess and review services to ensure that patients are receiving safe, high quality care.

“The Trust’s paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology services are currently facing increasing workforce pressures. When there are increasing pressures we need to act responsibly and discuss with partners and our clinical teams how we can continue to provide a safe and effective service and implement any temporary action if required. Therefore the Trust Board has asked that the clinical teams consider contingencies should any be needed. No decision to implement changes has yet been made.”