By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
The NHS home birth service in Gloucestershire is expected to be reintroduced before Christmas but there is frustration no date has yet been set to reopen Cheltenham’s maternity unit.
The Aveta birth centre at Cheltenham General Hospital was closed temporarily in 2022 due to staff shortages and a need to ensure safety.
And the home birth service was suspended across the county in November last year after safety concerns were raised by staff, according to health chiefs.
They said at the time that safety, the need to train up midwives and a review of their maternity model were the reasons for the suspension.
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust announced in May that good progress had been made but there was still more to do to be able to reopen safely and the home birth service would not resume until the autumn.
Now they say they are planning to reopen the service before Christmas and inspectors have recognised they are “certainly on the right path with maternity”.
They said last month that the Cheltenham maternity unit would reopen by the end of the autumn. However, there is frustration among councillors that a date to reopen the birth unit in the spa town has yet to be set.
Deputy chief executive Al Sheward gave an update at the health overview and scrutiny committee yesterday (October 13) and referenced the latest Care Quality Commission report and acknowledge they have “got a lot of work still to do”.
The report identified areas they need to make improvements around maternity triage, incident management and aspects of leadership governance.
But Stroud Maternity Hospital is in a good position, the report said.
“At Stroud maternity, the picture was particularly encouraging with the service improving to good across all five domains of the inspectorate assessment,” he said.
“They highlighted strong safeguarding arrangements at Stroud, effective governance and consistently positive feedback from women and families who access the service.
“Taken together the report shows we are certainly on the right path with maternity.
“It shows we are certainly moving in the right direction and they acknowledge the progress that has been made while recognising there has to be a continued focus on improvements.”
Mr Sheward went on to explain the changes that are taking place to offer more choice for women to give birth.
“There’s currently no confirmed reopening date but we plan to introduce home birthing before Christmas,” he said.
“But I did just want to set that in the context of the size of the piece of work that has been undertaken.
“We have consulted with over 130 midwives and the time that has taken has been considerable.
“It also requires midwives to be more flexible and some will move from the community to the acute trust and some will move from the acute trust out to the community but all in the spirit of offering women better choice to deliver in their preferred location.”
The committee agreed to keep the maternity unit as a regular agenda item for their meetings.
Councillor Richard Dean (G, Dursley) was among those who want to continue to scrutinise the maternity services and said the Aveta unit in Cheltenham is supposed to be opening.
Councillor Rebecca Trimnell (LD, Westgate) said she too would like to see the committee “drill down” into the different aspects of the maternity services.
“At the moment we are seeing this overall which is all very good, but as a scrutiny [committee] we could look at it in a more detailed way,” she said.
Councillor Milly Hill (L, Cam East) agreed with the views of the previous speakers.
“We’ve heard the work through, I’d like to see the results,” she said.
Towards the end of the debate, Councillor Paul Hodgkinson (LD, Bourton-on-the-Water and Northleach) said it was “way too premature” to stop scrutinising the maternity services at each of the meetings.
“We have to collectively make sure we are holding the NHS to account in a constructive way because there have been so many concerns raised and it has been such a high profile issue,” he said.
He said both he and Cheltenham MP Max Wilkinson are concerned there is no specific date for opening the Aveta Birthing Unit in the spa town.
“We were promised earlier this year it would be in September. So we’ve gone through September, we are halfway through October.
“I think we do need a date.”
Mr Sheward said they can say with “some certainty” that the the home births will be reintroduced before Christmas but it would be “too premature” for him to say about the birth unit.
He expects to be able to give councillors a “much clearer” timeline in November.