North Devon expectant mothers are on their own as of today.

Nothing surprises me any more when I read articles like this.
It shouldn’t even be called a service anymore when we have women suffering with PTSD after their horrific experience while giving birth.
It’s another national disgrace to go with all the others 🤬

If I had had a 90 minute drive DD would have been born in the car.

The hospital says it has made the decision because of unsafe staffing levels. It seems to be between a rock and a hard place.

What solution would posters suggest?

To be fair, if you live in North Devon, you have to go to Exeter for many services anyway.

Having driven many times from a North Devon village into Barnstaple I’ve rarely done it in under 30 minutes, often more at night especially if it’s been raining or foggy and visibility has been poor.

As I understand it, this is a temporary suspension due to a shortage of consultant gynaecologists and obstetricians in the area.

Ian Roome MP’s petition says:

The planned suspension is temporary and affects only deliveries; antenatal and postnatal care will remain local to North Devon.

While nobody wants to see services suspended, if they can’t be staffed safely surely it’s better that the expectant mothers plan to be closer to emergency services if the birth is expected to be difficult.

I live in the south east but some villages here are a good 60 minutes drive from the nearest maternity services and A&E.

Roome’s petition says:

We the undersigned:

Support the urgent reinstatement of local births at North Devon District Hospital as soon as safe staffing levels can be assured.

Which is precisely why services are being suspended because at the movement they can’t be assured.

What would your solution to the problem be?

I would make nurses training fully funded so they don’t end up in debt.

I would offer a financial incentive to qualified nurses who’ve left the profession to encourage them to return, particularly in areas of need.

I’d start doing this now!

Mothers to be, in labour, travel for 3 hours from the north of Scotland , Wick, to Raigmore hospital in Inverness.. not a competition, but a fact...

Well, it can't be due to pay, because Consultant roles in understaffed departments like Obstetrics and Gynaecology are being advertised at up to £150,569 to attract experienced medical staff.

It can't be due Devon's work-life balance, because we have great beaches, surfing, and excellent local schools to attract doctors looking to raise families.

Some of it might be that staff at regional hospitals have little career opportunity to work at the major hospitals. Maybe something could be set up along those lines?

My concern is more for the mothers who go into labour today, who have no car, no available finances, no home support. They are in a very vulnerable position.

temporary ..... we've heard that before!

And if ambulances set off for Exeter, that's at least 4+ hours that it is taken off the local patch.

Consultants must live within 30 mins from a hospital if they are on call, IMO this is too far for obstetric emergencies but if you haven't got consultants available, it is not possible to offer deliveries. It would put women at risk and leave resident doctors completely unsupported.
My daughter is a very senior resident doctor (anaesthetist) who frequently works on the surgical obstetrics ward of a major teaching hospital. She must be able to contact a consultant anaesthetist at any time should something occurs that she feels is outside her experience or skill without that facility, her work would be deemed "unsafe".

That's interesting, foxie48. So another reason could be that obstetrics consultants in Barnstaple no longer want the responsibility without a well qualified team around them. And these highly trained staff are only available at major hospitals, like I said earlier.
I foresee the end of the department at Barnstaple.

Well, it can't be due to pay, because Consultant roles in understaffed departments like Obstetrics and Gynaecology are being advertised at up to £150,569 to attract experienced medical staff.

It can't be due Devon's work-life balance, because we have great beaches, surfing, and excellent local schools to attract doctors looking to raise families.

Could it be due to a shortage of doctors because not enough training posts are available?

AI seems to think so

There is currently a serious shortage of UK medical specialty training posts relative to the number of doctors seeking them, particularly in England. This is one of the more striking contradictions in NHS workforce policy: the UK has increased the number of medical graduates, while not increasing postgraduate training capacity sufficiently to accommodate them. Chatgtp

Having travelled that route on more than one occasion, I know how long it takes, especially during holiday times.

Luckily, we lived much nearer a hospital and maternity homes were open too in the distant days when my children were born. However, Number three would have arrived in the car too had we had to travel that far.

It's not that people choose to live in areas far from hospitals, it's the fact that hospitals close or certain services shut down.

The solutions are for the Government to work out. It could take time but newly qualified medical staff, doctors, nurses, midwives, should not be starting their working lives with such huge debts hanging over them.

Consultants apply for posts which specify where they are working so I doubt that is the reason MartavTaurus. Maizie's post is more likely to be relevant. Increasing medical training places without increasing specialist training places just creates a log jam and increasing specialist training places depends on having consultants in place to support the training. There is no quick fix to this problem. My daughter's specialism is as follows so the problem looks set to worsen considerably. When working on obstetrics she not only works in theatre but is also responsible for administering epidurals and spinals which are essential in a delivery facility.
"Core/ACCS Anaesthetics (CT1) is heavily oversubscribed in the UK. Recent national recruitment data shows roughly 5,766 to 6,770 total applications submitted for an available pool of around 530 to 540 core training posts, resulting in a high competition ratio averaging between 6.5:1 and over 10:1 depending on the specific application cycle"
"According to reports by the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA), roughly 1 in 4 consultant anaesthetists (about 25%) plan to leave the NHS within five years, with retirement cited as a primary factor by a significant majority (64%) of those planning departures" AI gen.

Could it be due to a shortage of doctors because not enough training posts are available?
Maybe, and yet there's a paradox going on here, because six out of 10 job-seeking trained GPs struggle to find a vacancy to apply for?

I remember a lack of training places on previous occasions.
We never seem to get it quite right in this country do we.

Medical facilities do seem to be becoming more centralised which might mean the skills are concentrated in certain areas but that is not really patient-friendly except for those who live near these hospitals and centres of excellence.

MartavTaurus

^Could it be due to a shortage of doctors because not enough training posts are available?^
Maybe, and yet there's a paradox going on here, because six out of 10 job-seeking trained GPs struggle to find a vacancy to apply for?

I think it's all down on the expectation of *past tory governments over 40 years that our public services can be run on a shoestring. It causes all sorts of paradoxical situations.

*I refuse to include the 1997 -2010 Labour governments in tis because they did put more money into the NHS, though it may not have been enough.

I'm guessing the situation in the area is also compounded by the fact that North Devon ranks in the top 10% of socially deprived areas in England. There's low wages and high unemployment, so today's decision forces those very people even further down the pile. Hardship upon upon hardship, and greater isolation.