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 safety at Pembury. The board had not seen


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


Protocols for birth unit will be enforced


STRICT protocols will be en- forced for running the new ma- ternity-led birthing unit due to open in September as the con- sultant-led maternity unit moves to Pembury, says the NHS trust. This assurance was given to MASH chairman Dennis Fowle by the trust board after he re- ferred to £6.4m damages awarded in the High Court to parents of a child severely dam- aged by shortcomings in a birthing unit. The trust said the unit would


be available only to totally low- risk women (and age was a fac- tor) and staffed by higher- qualified senior midwives.


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 from home to hospital by car are more likely to suffer adverse neonatal outcomes. These are associated with ‘increased inci- dence of intrapartum/ neonatal mortality


Pupils’ buggy race supports campaign


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.


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-


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


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


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


Bigger car park needed to meet demand from visitors and staff


MAIDSTONE Hospital is work- ing with planning officials from Maidstone Council to increase the overall number of parking spaces available on the hospital grounds. The exact number of addi-


tional parking spaces the hospi- tal is allowed to create will be determined by the council’s planning department in due course. The additional spaces are needed to ensure the hospital and its expanding range of serv- ices can cope with increasing patient, visitor and staff de- mands. Derek Shaw, the trust’s Direc-


tor of Estates and Facilities, said: “Maidstone Hospital has grown substantially in the last


THE trust running Maidstone Hospital is show- ing no signs yet of opening the proposed day-care assessment unit for children beyond 8am-8pm Mon-days to Fridays when inpatient children’s services move to Pembury this autumn. GPs expressed deep concern about the paedi-


atric proposals to the Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley.


18 Town


few years following multi-mil- lion pound developments and advances in local NHS care. “It is a hub for complex can-


cer care for patients throughout Kent and East Sussex and will soon become a centre of expert- ise for complex surgery for half a million people inWest Kent. “It has outgrown its original


car parking needs and we are working closely with planning officials at Maidstone council to create more spaces as soon as possible.” The hospital currently has


1,337 car parking spaces for vis- itors, patients and staff. The trust’s initial planning as- sumptions have requested per- mission for between 140 to 300 extra parking bays.


Trust sticks to its guns over child care provision The trust is meeting Mr Lansley’s requirement


that consultant paediatric opinion must be avail- able 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 organi- sation Kent Link is joining Maidstone campaign group MASH in pressing for a 24/7 Maidstone unit with a full-time paediatrician.


To contact Downs Mail just phone 01622 630330


with poor transport connec- tions.


“There must be adequate, af- fordable transport for these groups.”


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 serv- ices transfer to Pembury. This means patients in severe pain will not have to travel to Pem- bury.


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THE CHIEF executive paid trib- ute to staff for coping with the increased emergency workload in the snow/flu period – and in moving in to the new hospital now opened at Pembury.


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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 hospi- tal activity.


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