SOLIHULL Hospital’s maternity unit is ‘living on borrowed time’ according a member of a watchdog charged with overseeing health chiefs.Bridget Sproston, a governor at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, backed controversial moves by trust bosses to downgrade the service.
She echoed their view that the service does not meet safety standards.
Click the headline or link below to read and listen to the interview with Ms Sproston.
Ms Sproston told The Silhillian: “I think the service it has at the moment is one that is living on borrowed time because of the regulations laid down by the clinical colleges and I think that is putting people under undue professional pressure.”
The unit will close on April 26 and re-open for midwife led births only about a month later. A consultation on its long-term future will begin in the autumn
Ms Sproston, who represents Solihull South, said the trust had ‘been very considerate in it’s publication of what they are going to do for the interim’.
She said: “I think it is very difficult for the clinicians to work under circumstances where they feel they may be putting patients in danger.”
Ms Sproston, from Knowle, said: “I think, having listened to the lead clinician, listened to the changes in the regulations around what is considered to be acceptable and defendable in court, I think it is very difficult to see how they can do anything other than what they have done.”
Governors are elected and their role is to scrutinise the work of the trust board, made of employed managers.
Asked whether she felt the governors were having an affect, she said ‘we are informed about everything that is going on’.
She cited a recent row over MP Caroline Spelman saying the service had been given ‘breathing space’ as an example of how governors were kept informed.
In a Q&A at Heartlands Hospital, Bordesley Green, the seven governors present were asked to rate their influence on the board on a scale of one to ten, worst to best.
Ms Sproston rated her influence as a three while the others present voted a ‘two or three’, six, five, ‘five or six’, six and ‘five to seven’. There are 44 governors.
Ray Shields, who cast the latter vote, said ‘in some areas it might be as high as nine or ten’.
But he said: “In other areas it may be down to a two or three level. I think there is a feeling amongst the governors it is maybe not as powerful a voice as it could be and I think the trust themselves recognise that.”
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