Anxious wait now for Melton birth centre campaigners

St Mary’s Birth Centre has been earmarked for closure as part of proposals to centralise major maternity services in Leicestershire and Rutland in the city.

The local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) say the town unit is no longer viable and they plan instead to set up a midwifery-led birth centre at Leicester General.

Dozens of mums who have used St Mary’s have been backed by thousands who have signed petitions arguing the unit should be retained because of the excellent service staff provide there before, during and after babies are born, and to continue to give women more choice.

In a final display of support for the birth centre, more than 70 people left baby grows and messages backing the unit at Melton’s Bandstand in the Play Close park.

In addition, two petitions with a total of more than 5,000 signatures were delivered to the CCGs’ HQ in Leicester by Glynn Cartwright, from the Save Our Services - St Mary’s Birth Centre Campaign Group, and Matt Smith, of the Rutland and Melton Labour Party.

The St Mary’s Birth Centre proposals are part of a planned £450 million revamp of local hospital services, to include a new maternity hospital and the region’s first single-site dedicated children’s hospital at Leicester Royal Infirmary, plus the expansion of Glenfield Hospital’s planned care treatment and operations.

The area’s three CCGs today (Tuesday) thanked everyone who had contributed to the public consultation, which included a detailed questionnaire on the proposals and a number of online meetings and engagement events.

But they have not yet set a date on when the final outcome will be announced after findings are independently analysed and evaluated by the Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (CSU).

The final Consultation Report of Findings will be received by the three CCG governing bodies and discussed in a public meeting in 2021 - the date of which is yet to be determined as it depends on how long it takes to analyse the data.

The papers for this meeting will be publicly available and the meeting date will be promoted so people have an opportunity to attend and hear the discussions.

Andy Williams, chief executive of the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland CCGs, said: “We have carried out extensive consultation activities to reach as many people as we can and I wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has given their feedback, whether they have attended one of our online events, filled in the questionnaire or contacted us directly.

“It is difficult to assess how long it will take to fully analyse the responses and produce the Consultation Report so at the moment it’s too early to say exactly when the Governing Body meeting will be held.

“As soon as we have a date it will of course be fully communicated.”

Andrew Furlong, medical director and consultant children’s orthopaedic surgeon at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, said: “We are now one step closer to making this once in a generation £450million investment in improving our buildings and services a reality.

“The feedback provided via the consultation will be invaluable to us - it will help inform our plans and shape the best possible future for our hospitals.

“This is a really exciting time for us all, and we cannot wait to start improving our hospitals and provide our patients with even better care.”