Hospitals 'turn away women in labour'

[Morris Onions]

More than two-fifths of hospitals in England had to turn away women in labour last year because they were full, a survey published today shows.

The survey of 103 NHS trusts across the country, compiled by the Conservatives using the Freedom of Information Act, found that 43 (42%) shut their doors to women in labour or sent them to another hospital.

Almost one in 10 trusts said they had closed their maternity units more than 10 times in 2007.

Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Health Care Trust reported closing its doors to women in labour 39 times, while University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust sent women away 28 times.

The survey found that capacity problems were most acute in large maternity units, which accounted for more than three-quarters (78%) of the NHS trusts that closed more than 10 times last year.

The Conservatives said the findings called into question the government's plans to close small maternity units.

The shadow health secretary, Andrew Lansley, said: "The government's plans to close maternity units when services are already overstretched fly in the face of common sense.

"Labour are fixated with cutting smaller, local maternity services and concentrating them in big units. But women don't want to have to travel miles to give birth.

"And they certainly don't want to have to travel even further because they're turned away by the hospital of their choice."

The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) described the survey's findings as "unacceptable".

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/mar/20/nhs.health1