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Solihull Hospital’s maternity unit is closed until July when it will re-open for midwife-led births only. A consultation on its future takes place in the autumn.
She said: “The new government is better motivated to serve the needs of the community and we have a friend in the new Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley.”
Mrs Spelman said Mr Lansley – shadow health secretary since 2003 – had pledged before to election to fight for the town’s maternity services.
He told campaigners: “If we are elected to Government, I would require the Primary Care Trust to commission continuing maternity services at Solihull, pending the outcome of a locally-led and clinician-led review of maternity services.
“Our objective is that mothers-to-be have access to maternity services that are both accessible and safe.”
Mrs Spelman said in a press release: “I am now much more hopeful of a better outcome for maternity services after a fresh consultation process.”
Mrs Spelman also said she was concerned about criticism by doctors’ leaders of children’s care at Heartlands Hospital, Bordesley Green, amongst the hospital taking on Solihull mums.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health slammed delays in assessing children and a lack of cots for sick babies.
The high dependency unit was at 177 per cent capacity, almost twice as many babies were being treated than should be, it found.
She said: “Mothers-to-be now have to travel to these hospitals to have their babies while Solihull’s excellent Maternity Unit is closed.
“It is expected to re-open dealing with only 300 ‘low risk’ births a year, when it was designed to deal with 3000 births across Solihull Borough.
“People quite rightly ask why a maternity unit which had a reputation of being one of the best in the country has lost its status.
“The answer is more to do with Labour’s mismanagement of the NHS, which resulted in trusts making poor decisions, than with so-called clinical requirements.
“Solihull’s A&E was downgraded, shortly followed by the Maternity Unit – a pattern seen elsewhere in the country.”
The MP was made Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when the Conservatives took power with a coalition deal with the Liberal Democrats.
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