Union Safety - Official Website of NW BT Union Health and Safety Coordinators Committee: Save Liverpool Women's Hospital Demonstration Against Closure At Labour Conference

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Claims that no decision has been made is mere mirrors and smoke to deflect the fact all work being done is towards closure

The campaign against the closure of the UKs only major and dedicated maternity and gynaecology stand-alone hospital, has been going for ten years now, as successive NHS authorities have been trying to close it, sell off the land or the hospital to the private sector, and disperse women's health and maternity services across Liverpool.

Trade Unions on Merseyside, from NHS trade unions to those Trade Unions with members on Merseyside who may well be put at risk by the closure of the hopsital.

The CWU on Merseyside has given its full support to the campaign.

Branch Secretary of the Mersey Branch of the CWU, Caroline Gillies; told Unionsafety:

"CWU Mersey Branch is proud to support the Save Liverpool Women's Hospital campaign. This hospital plays a vital role in caring for women, children, and families across our city and beyond, providing essential services when they are most needed. Its closure would leave a significant gap in healthcare provision for our community."

She concluded by saying:

"As a union branch, we believe in standing together to protect the services that matter most. We encourage everyone to support this campaign and help ensure Liverpool Women's Hospital remains open for future generations."

CWU Branch Secretary of the CWU Greater Mersey Amal Branch, Mark Walsh, gave support to the event, telling Unionsafety of his families personal experience of the Liverpool Women's Hospital:

"In the next few weeks, it will be 30 years since my daughter was born at the Liverpool Women's Hospital and we still remember the care and effort Claire the midwife gave to my wife during a difficult birth and our daughter. Claire stayed after her shift to assist and comfort us all."

Expressing his concerns for the future of the hopsital, he said:

"The hospital pre-birth and post birth services were great; the staff could not have done more for us as a family and it's a place 30 years on we still remember fondly. It would be a real shame to us as a family if the hospital and its services were to close and a big loss to the city for future generations."

A small group of dedicated women, with the support of concerned and dedicated men, have been fighting to save the hospital for over ten years! If anyone knows the truth and reality of what is going on within Merseyside's hospitals and the ICB, and the false promises given to doctors and nurses, such as there will be a new maternity unit built on the Royal Hospital site, despite there being absolutely nowhere on that site it could go; it is the women and men of the Save Liverpool Women's Hospital campaign group!

Numerous reports into the failings in maternity and gynaecoloigcal services, not to mention the appalling number of avoidable deaths of babies and mothers in hopsitals as a result of poor care and in some cases neglegence of staff and managers, have been published. Yet, the decline in maternity care continues.

The Save Liverpool Women's Hospital campaign group website, gives further details:

Donna Ockendon Donna Ockendon produced the Shrewsury report and has gone on to do more.
This interview with Donna Ockendon is useful too, especially the last section. This interview is also informative. Donna Ockendon is working on a report into a long review of Nottingham’s Maternity services. This video from Donna Ockendon explains some of it.

For an up-to-date list of enquiries into maternity services in England, go to the Save Liverpool Women's Hospital website here

A report by the NHS, entitled Maternity and Neonatal Infrastructure Review Findings was published this month (11th September), concluded: 'Our survey results highlight issues with maternity and neonatal service infrastructure across England, including limited physical space, inadequate capacity for efficient services and poor building conditions.'

The question is: How does closing the only stand-alone, and well maintained specialist maternity and gynaecology hospital left in England, concur with that conclusion, and if so, how does closing it turn around the appalling state of maternity outcomes in England?

In answer to that question, the Labour Government is now adopting the US system of healthcare - denial of healthcare, the privatisation of healthcare; with the latest proposals from a duplicitous and dishonest Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board hiding behind a so-called public consultation, the use of consultants to issue reports on meetings that they have never attended; all while the ICB intention is as it always has been - the closure of the Crown Street site and the dispersal to overstretched and under resourced hospitals that have no gynaecological or maternity expertise.

With the Labour Government demanding ICBs cut their costs, break even, on the way to the future aim of making profits; they demand cuts to ICB spending, being fully aware that this means cuts to clinical services and hospital's infrastructure and maintenance. The scramble for funding by hospital departments controlled by a single board (Liverpool Heart and Chest Hopsital, Aintree, Broadgreen, the Royal Hospital, and the Liverpool Women's Hospital) covering several major hospitals, means maternity will be left at the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to budgets and services, not to mention staffing levels of dedicated doctors and nurses.

The Save Liverpool Women's Hospital campaign group have been educating the public and Merseyside MPs, the truth of what is being planned, and about the distorted statistics and claims of risk to babies and mothers because the Royal Hospital is 5 minutes away by road from the Women's Hospital; and yet the CQC have never considered the Women's Hospital to be a risk to mothers and babies.

This despite that the funding of the Women's is lacking and resources have not been put in when it comes to staffing and facilities for patients in an emergency situation. With less than 12 patients in one year needing transfer to an emergency hospital; the Liverpool Women's Hospital close to the Royal University Hospital site within a 5-minute ambulance trip; has never resulted in any deaths. This cannot be said of acute hospitals across the nation!

Whilst the catchment area of the Liverpool Women's Hospital is NOT just Liverpool itself, given that women from the whole of the North West and Wirral choose to give birth at the Crown Street Hospital, or are referred to their expert maternity and gynaecological services; it must be recignised that situated as it is in Liverpool 8, many patients and birthhing mothers come from this diverse community.

The lack of knowledge, understanding, and respect for differing cultures in many parts of the NHS, including in other Liverpool Hospitals is well documented. It is therefore even more critical that the expertise in these areas of maternity and gynaecological healthcare which is implicate in everythinng the Women's Hopsital does; is not lost because even more harm can be done to women and babies.

Sadly, there is a view amongst some, that the decision to close or move the Hospital services across the city, is one of racism. Whilst that does not feature in the campaign against closure, privately, some supporters believe that may be part of the reasons behind the closure decision taken way back in 2015.

Racism is a major problem across the NHS as the latest investigation into Nottingham Hospital as the HSJ reports:

“Racism and marginalisation” at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust meant families “felt pushed out” and resulted in “tragic outcomes”, according to the chair of the inquiry into its maternity services.

This month’s Labour Party Conference being held in Liverpool will see a march from the Women's Hospital to the Marks and Spencer Arina where the conference is being held, and a rally of concerned people of Merseyside and of visitors across the country spending their weekend in Liverpool; with guest speakers making up the biggest march and rally in defence of the Liverpool Women's Hospital.

The message to Wes Streeting, who is in the pockets of the US healthcare lobby, who have been instrumental in determining Labour Government policy for the future of the NHS. Having taken over £193,000 in payments from private healthcare and equity lobbyists, it is clear that Wes Streeting is no lover of the NHS!

Go to the Liverpool Women's Hospital campaign website for details of the demonstration being held on Sunday 28th September, and of the true facts about the hopsital and the deceipt and lies of the ICB.