Maidstone’s battle to keep its maternity service continues Report by MASH chairman Dennis Fowle Danger of long journeys for pregnant mums


THE local hospital trust board has been called on to abandon plans to switch ma- ternity from Maidstone Hospital to Pem- bury because of journey-time dangers to mothers and newborn babies highlighted in a major new report. The demand was made at a meeting of


Maidstone and TunbridgeWells NHS Trust by Dennis Fowle, chairman of campaign Group MASH (Maidstone Action for Serv- ices in Hospital). Trust chairman Tony Jones said the re-


configuration decision was made on con- sultant advice relating to greater clinical


BOTH KCC and Maidstone Council have turned on the Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, for his decision to back a move of maternity and children’s services from Maidstone Hospital to Pembury. KCC health scrutiny committee passed a


four-part motion with only Maidstone Lib- Dem councillor Dan Daley voting against. It expresses “profound disappointment”


with a decision which overrides a near- unanimous view of the committee and Maidstone area GPs. It also backs the view of Maidstone MP


Helen Grant and campaign group MASH that his decision should not be imple- mented before he empowers GPs to com- mission clinical services and “determine the future scope of maternity provision in the county town”. KCC agreed to monitor the impact of his


YEAR 10 students from In- victa Grammar School or- ganised a buggy race as part of their campaign opposing the closure of the maternity ward at Maidstone Hospital and its move to Pembury Hospital. The campaign started as a citizenship project but now the whole school has be- come involved. The girls have called their project MUM – Mothers United in Maidstone. To raise awareness, Year 10 pupils have addressed as- semblies, designed and dis- played flyers and organised events such as a cake sale, quiz and the buggy race, which brought together the whole school on the astro turf one lunchtime. Students have been de-


lighted to receive letters of support from local MPs Helen Grant and Hugh


THE trust running Maidstone Hospital is showing no signs yet of opening the proposed day-care assessment unit for children beyond 8am-8pm Mondays to Fridays when in- patient children’s services move to Pembury this autumn. GPs expressed deep concern


about the paediatric proposals to the Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley. The trust is meeting Mr


safety at Pembury. The board had not seen the new report – but would now study it and comment. Mr Fowle said the report highlighted the


risks of journeys of more than 20 minutes – and with Pembury journeys varying be- tween 30 minutes and an hour was at the very hub of Maidstone’s massive objections. The review over seven years published in


BJOG ( an international journal on obstet- rics and gynaecology) shows women in labour who take 20 minutes or more to get fromhome to hospital by car are more likely to suffer adverse neonatal outcomes.


decision on the number of admissions to consultant-led maternity units at Medway and Ashford. With shortages of midwives and tempo-


rary closures of birthing units in East Kent, KCC wants an urgent review of all birthing units and consultant-led maternity services across Kent. The motion was proposed by Maidstone county councillors Jenny Whittle and Gary Cooke and supported by members “bewil- dered” by the decision due to “appalling links to Pembury”. Another letter to Mr Lansley goes from Maidstone Council’s cabinet member for community services John Wilson who ex- presses “disappointment and concern” and writes of “the negative impact on our bor- ough residents”. He asks Mr Lansley to re- consider his decision.


Pupils’ buggy race supports campaign These are associated with ‘increased inci-


dence of intrapartum/ neonatal mortality and adverse outcomes.’ The journal says: “This paper highlights


the need to have a good service accessible to women wherever they live.” MASHis calling on Maidstone drivers to


help in recording journey times at different times of the day from the centre of Maid- stone (All Saints’ Church) to Pembury, Ash- ford and Medway Hospitals for a review to be published. These details can be emailed to dfowle2011@aol.com.


Two councils turn on Health Secretary Weaknesses exposed


in trust’s decision WEAKNESSES in the decision to close Maidstone Hospital’s consultant-led birthing and inpatient children’s services are being highlighted by public and patient body Kent Link. Priorities panel member Robin Ridsdill-


Smith is calling for these improvements: CHILDREN: He says the plan for a day-


care unit of 13 beds (six day-case beds, six assessment beds and one high dependency room) from 8am to 8pm with a paediatric consultant on-call from Pembury is inade- quate. He calls for a larger unit available on a 24-


hour basis with full-time cover by a trained paediatrician. MATERNITY should be under supervi-


sion of an obstetric consultant. TRANSPORT: He says he is most con- cerned by the indefinite nature of public transport links. He sees greater demand for visitor facilities. PARKING: He also has concerns about shortage of patient/visitor parking. He adds: “A number of patients in Maid-


stone area will be disadvantaged. “These will include not only the finan-


cially, physically and ethnically disadvan- taged but also those living in nearby villages with poor transport connections. “There must be adequate, affordable transport for these groups.”


Protocols for birth unit


STRICT protocols will be enforced for run- ning the new maternity-led birthing unit due to open in September as the consultant- led maternity unit moves to Pembury, says the NHS trust. This assurance was given toMASH chair-


Robertson. Borough Cllr John A Wilson, cabinet member for community services, was also due to


Trust is stubborn over child care


Lansley’s requirement that consultant paediatric opinion must be available to Maidstone A&E staff when the day unit is shut – but this will be on call, not permanently based in the hospital. The public/patient organis-


ation Kent Link is joining Maidstone campaign group MASH in calling for a 24/7 Maidstone unit with a full- time paediatrician.


meet the students during their citizenship lesson to discuss and support the campaign.


Hospital briefs


CHIEF executive of the hospital Trust, Glenn Douglas, has con- firmed to his board that Maid- stone will get its chronic pain unit back later this year when women’s and children’s services transfer to Pembury. This means patients in severe pain will not have to travel to Pembury. xxx THE CHIEF executive paid trib- ute to staff for coping with the in- creased emergency workload in


To contact Downs Mail just phone 01622 630330


the snow/flu period – and in moving in to the new hospital now opened at Pembury. xxx


CHAIRMAN Tony Jones said there were difficult financial times ahead for the trust – “but we will not lower patient safety”. xxx


COMPLAINTS and contacts with patient liaison have risen – partly due to increased hospital activ- ity.


Malling 19


man Dennis Fowle by the trust board after he referred to £6.4m damages awarded in the High Court to parents of a child severely damaged by shortcomings in a birthing unit. The trust said the unit would be available


only to totally low-riskwomen (and age was a factor) and staffed by higher-qualified sen- ior midwives.


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