North Devon District Hospital (NDDH) in Barnstaple will temporarily close its maternity unit from August 11 due to a shortage of consultants, raising safety concerns for expectant mothers who face long journeys to deliver elsewhere. The hospital, the most remote major hospital in mainland England, has not set a reopening date.
Impact on Pregnant Women
One pregnant mother expecting her third child, due on August 18, learned of the closure via social media. She will now have to drive over 90 minutes to either Exeter or Taunton, the nearest alternative maternity units. She said: "Being over an hour-and-a-half away, and this being my third, it's likely to come quite quickly. I don't particularly want to be giving birth on the side of the road."
Political and Medical Response
Local Liberal Democrat MP Ian Roome described the closure as potentially "life-threatening," noting that the unique transport situation on the South West Peninsula means delays of several hours before reaching the next hospital in Exeter. He has called for a national response to parachute doctors into the hospital and said: "This is going to put unborn babies’ lives at risk." Roome believes the unit is short of one full-time consultant and two registrars to reach safe staffing levels.
Vanessa Purday, chief medical officer at NDDH, said she could not give a reopening date but added: "What we can say to our women and families, who are clearly anxious and worried by this decision, we are working hard to reopen as quickly as we can. We understand their concerns, we understand their geography, their location, what childcare issues they have, transport risks, and we'll be putting some wraparound care to make sure we support each woman."
Staffing Crisis Context
Dr Ian Morris, south west regional chair for the British Medical Association, said: "This decision will undoubtedly cause a lot of worry to pregnant women whose delivery plans have changed last minute, with some potentially facing long journeys to the closest hospital." He attributed the shortage to failures in workforce planning, a shortage of specialist training places, and doctors leaving the NHS due to being undervalued. He warned that more hospitals may face similar closures unless safe staffing is ensured.
NDDH typically handles 12,000 births a year, with numbers rising in summer due to holidaymakers. The trust has historically struggled to recruit consultants to the area, and the current crisis is blamed on staff leaving, maternity leave, sickness, and locum unavailability. Purday described the decision as "enormous" but necessary, stating that they cannot guarantee women consistently have access to senior medical support during labour.
Community Reaction
Hundreds of people have commented on the closure on Facebook, where Roome has set up a petition. Sarah Henshall posted: "An absolutely terrible failure. I had a placental abruption and gave birth to my daughter at NDDH a year ago. Had I been forced to travel the extra distance to Exeter instead both my daughter and I would have died on route." Carolyn Hinton said: "What are we? The forgotten ones? Why is the health and safety of our local women and their unborn babies less important than elsewhere in the country? There will be road accidents rushing labouring women on a 50 mile journey. Would you want to be that husband behind the wheel or having to cope with a birth at the side of the road? This is a tragedy waiting to happen."
