A DESPERATE shortage of midwives in Oxford forced the county’s largest NHS trust to temporarily close a maternity unit and 'put lives at risk.'

Staff had to be moved from a unit in the north of the county to the John Radcliffe because it was understaffed.

Last Wednesday, Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust had to shut the midwife-led maternity unit at the Horton General in Banbury as its midwife, as well as three community midwives, were all requisitioned to the John Radcliffe in Headington.

The move, which meant services for deliveries and home births were put on hold in the north of the county, ‘put the lives of pregnant mothers and their babies at risk’, according to health campaigners, while a local patient group has called on the trust to resolve the midwife staffing ‘crisis’ as a matter of urgency.

Critics have also said it is yet more evidence that the county's increasingly stretched NHS services are becoming more and more centralised to Oxford.

However, trust leaders said the closure was necessary because of ‘an increase in activity’ in the city, while claiming that no pregnant women in the north of the county required the use of the Banbury maternity services during the four-and-a-half-hour closure.

It is the second time the Horton maternity unit has had to be closed since county health bosses downgraded the service from consultant-led to midwife-led in October 2016.

Health bosses could not confirm whether staffing pressures would lead to further temporary closures at the Banbury unit, or at the trust’s other midwife-led units in Chipping Norton, Wallingford and Wantage in the future.

Campaign group Keep the Horton General has been leading the fight to re-instate full maternity services at the Horton General Hospital.

Keith Strangwood, chairman of the Keep the Horton General campaign group, which has been leading the fight to re-instate full maternity services at the hospital, slammed the decision to temporarily close the unit on Wednesday night: “What it did was it put north Oxfordshire mothers’ and their babies’ lives at risk.

“Under duty of care they shouldn’t have done that.

“It just shows they are really struggling.

“The government and local MPs need to step in.”

Jacquie Pearce-Gervis of Patient Voice, which represents patients across Oxfordshire, said: “This is happening far too frequently.

“It is a great concern for women in the Banbury and surrounding area who are expecting to go in to labour in the near future.

“The OUH NHS Foundation Trust really must sort out their midwifery staffing shortages as a matter of urgency.

“It appears to be at crisis level.”

The number of midwives working at the trust has fallen by around 12 per cent since maternity services at the Banbury hospital were downgraded in October 2016.

Then the trust had 293 midwives (full-time equivalent), while the latest figures show that in April this year there were 258.

A report last month revealed the chronic shortage would impact on services this summer with trust bosses already forced to close some beds at the Spires unit at the John Radcliffe as it looked to run maternity services more ‘effectively’.

Senior midwives which had moved into management and teaching roles at the trust have also been drafted back onto the front line.

Trust bosses say they are desperately trying to recruit more midwives, with the equivalent of 26 full-time midwife vacancies left unfilled as of July.

Rosalie Wright, director of midwifery at OUH, said: “Maternity services by their nature are a responsive service, and our staffing model reflects that – our midwives go where women need them to be.

“On Wednesday, August 8, there was a need for additional midwives at the John Radcliffe Hospital due to an increase in activity, and it was where women in labour at that time had chosen to give birth.

“In this situation, we look to our other on-call midwives to support the service where they are needed.

“We therefore closed the midwifery-led unit at the Horton General Hospital for a short period of four-and-a-half hours.

“Three community midwives, and one midwife from the Horton midwifery-led unit, were called to the John Radcliffe Hospital.

“Since October 2016, the Horton midwifery-led unit has been temporarily closed for short periods on two occasions.

“These decisions are never taken lightly, and they are clinical decisions deemed necessary to maintain safe, high quality care for all women.

“During the temporary closure of the Horton General midwifery-led unit last week, no pregnant woman required the support of its services and staff.”