RUMOURS that the Alexandra Hospital will stop taking new bookings from expectant mums from August and that maternity services will be cut from the Alex by Christmas of this year have been rebuffed by health chiefs.
The concerns were raised by the Save the Alex Campaign in a letter to Dr Jonathan Wells, chairman of Redditch and Bromsgrove clinical Commissioning Group and Harry Turner, chairman of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.
In it Neal Stote, Save the Alex chairman said: “Our sources and newly expectant parents have increasingly been contacting us. The information they have been sharing with us is all similar leaving us with little doubt that there is some truth behind these ‘rumours’.”
He also raised concerns that, with plans to move consultant-led maternity cases from the Alex to Worcester, that Worcestershire Royal Hospital still didn’t have to capacity to cope with the average of 43 births a week at the Alex.
And he called for answers to rumours that the Alexandra Hospital would stop taking new bookings from expectant mums from August of this year and that maternity services, particularly doctor-led deliveries, would cease at the Alex by Christmas of this year.
In reply, a health spokeswoman said: “Both maternity units at the Alexandra and Worcestershire Royal Hospitals are operating as normal and there are no plans to stop taking bookings for new mothers from August. Any mothers who are expecting to give birth at the Alexandra Hospital, should continue with this plan.
“The concerns about the sustainability of the current maternity services have been well documented and plans to centralise all consultant-led births in the county at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital form part of the Future of Acute Hospitals in Worcestershire reconfiguration programme.
“Under the plans all other aspects of maternity care including ante-natal and post-natal appointments, scans, monitoring and community midwifery would continue in the same place as now.
“A public consultation on the proposed changes is due to take place later this year.”
