Report recommends the end of births and post-natal care at Melton baby unit

Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (LLR ICB) has published its final report on the future of maternity services at the much-loved Thorpe Road baby unit following engagement with women, families and staff.

It recommends board members approve ‘the relocation of intrapartum services’ from St Mary’s Birth Centre to the midwifery-led unit at Leicester General Hospital ‘in a safe, sustainable and fair way’.

The decision would also see the end of post-natal in-patient services at the unit.

Births and in-patient postnatal care at St Mary’s have been paused since July last due to what the health authority said was very low birth numbers and staff issues which meant 24/7 midwifery cover could not be maintained.

Health board members will consider the recommendations in light of the feedback received from the engagement and the information outlined in the report and make their final decision at today’s public meeting, which is being held at the Melton Borough Council offices.

Melton & Syston MP Edward Argar, who has met senior officials of the ICB on several occasions and who took part in last August’s rally through the town in support of the birth centre, said he was ‘deeply disappointed’ by the likely permanent closure of the unit.

He told the Melton Times: "The recommendations in the ICB papers are devastating news for all of us who have campaigned for St Mary's Birth Centre to re-open to new births after this 'pause'.

"When the 'temporary pause' to births at St Mary's was announced by the local NHS last summer, as Melton's local MP, alongside local campaigners, I was clear that such a pause must be just that, a pause to sort out staffing levels and safety, not a smokescreen for a decision to permanently stop births at St Marys much earlier than the NHS had previously announced it intended to.

“Disappointingly, the months since that announcement of the 'pause' appear not to have been used to put together a plan to improve staffing at this important and much valued community health service, nor to better promote it to increase the numbers of people using it, but instead for it be closed far sooner than the original 2021 decision planned to do, and with the promised brand new maternity unit in Leicester linked to that 2021 decision now scrapped.”

He called on ICB board members to listen to campaigners and think again ahead of today’s pivotal meeting on the birth centre’s future.

"While each individual case must of course follow clinical patient safety advice, the loss of this service locally appears to be clearly at odds with the government's stated objective of health services being less centralised and more local, and I call on the ICB at the very least to continue to provide both ante- and post-natal services in Melton going forwards,” Mr Argar added.

The health authority decided back in 2021 to consolidate all Leicestershire maternity care in the city as part of a major overhaul of local hospital services but the process has been delayed by funding issues.