PREGNANT women will no longer be able to give birth at Harwich’s Hospital from next April, under new proposals.

From October 1, mums-to-be listed for births at the town’s Fryatt Hospital are set to be told they can give birth at home or travel 19 miles to Clacton or Colchester.

Maternity services provided by the trust at both the Harwich and Clacton birthing units were reviewed over the autumn of 2014, with proposals to close the unit then fought off by residents who even staged marched through the towns against the plans.

Hospital trust boss Nick Hulme said yesterday the reason was “purely financial.”

He added: “The trust understands that the Harwich maternity unit is highly valued by some residents and is carefully considering this as part of its thinking.

“However, the trust is also acutely aware of its role and responsibility as a guardian of public funds and their efficient and sustainable use.

“As part of these discussions, we must take into account the increasing cost of offering patients the option of giving birth at the unit.”

In last the last financial year only 44 women gave birth at Harwich - fewer than one a week.

Mr Hulme said it cost the trust £8,000 to deliver a baby there and it gets £2,000 per birth.

“That’s a significant financial loss given the state of the trust’s financial situation at the moment,” he added.

The trust added in a statement: “The impact on the Colchester and Clacton units would be neutral.

“Fewer than 44 women are expected to give birth in Harwich this year, and even if all future patients go to Clacton and Colchester rather than opting for home births, this is only a small increase to the number of births expected this year in the Colchester and Clacton units, which is a total of 770 based on last year’s figures.”

The trust’s board will discuss the proposals on Wednesday September 28.

It said yesterday the changes will only take place following this “full discussion” and “a further assessment being carried out on the effect of these potential changes”.

It added: “Furthermore, a full programme of communications to patients, families, partners and staff would take place.”

The site at Harwich is owned by Anglian Community Enterprise and the trust is holding discussions with it about its future.

Mr Hulme said renting it was the biggest cost to the trust.

“They are aware of our proposals, it still needs to go to the board and be agreed.

“We wanted to give them as much notice as possible in case they wanted to get additional services in the hospital in case they wanted to cover rent.”

Harwich Hospital was original intended to provide for 1,000 births a year.

It is staffed from 9am to 5pm with births outside these hours led by on-call midwives.

The number of births at Harwich is falling each year which has driven up the cost of delivery.

Instead women will have the option of giving birth at Colchester Hospital’s consultant led unit, or for uncomplicated births, the option of having a home birth, or having their baby in the midwife-led units in Colchester’s Juno Suite or Clacton Hospital.

The trust is facing a financial deficit of more than £40million for 2016/17.

  • A COUNCILLOR has said closing Harwich’s birthing has been a long term strategy of the trust.

Ivan Henderson, pictured, Harwich town councillor, said residents would be angry and upset.

He said: “It has been a long term strategy of theirs to gradually whittle down that maternity unit and now they believe they have got a good reason because they have evidence of low figures using it.

Gazette:

“Not so long ago Colchester’s was refurbished.

“Of course the figures are going to look bad when every time there’s a shortage of midwives in Colchester they take midwives away from us.

“I think it has all just been a ploy from the start to encourage people not to go to Harwich.”

Mr Henderson said he wasn’t sure if there was any action they could take to make the trust change its mind.

He added: “They are failing the women of Harwich.”

  • AN outraged campaigner said she still has hope Harwich’s birthing unit can be saved.

Jenny Semple, who has tirelessly fought to keep maternity services in Harwich, said she was shocked there would be no formal consultation.

She said: “They won’t like the answers which is why they’re not doing a consultation.

“They are basically saying the people of Harwich don’t count.

“There are lots of new, single mums here who wouldn’t have been able to get to Colchester. There’s no overnight taxi service and you can’t ring an ambulance because it’s not an emergency.

“I am prepared to do whatever it takes to get them to change their minds.”