Births at North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple have been suspended since 11 August. No baby has been born there since. If you’re due, in labour, or just found out you’re pregnant and live anywhere near North Devon, mid-Devon, north-east Cornwall, Torridge, Bude, or southern Somerset – this affects you.
Here’s what’s actually going on, and why expectant parents across the region are so angry.
What happened
The Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust pulled the plug on birthing services at North Devon District Hospital, citing staffing shortages that made the unit “clinically unsafe” to run. Trust chief executive Sam Higginson says it’s temporary, and that recruitment for permanent and locum doctors and consultants is underway.
Devon County Council leader Julian Brazil didn’t hold back, calling it “a catastrophic failure of senior management.”
At a special council meeting, officials from NHS Devon and Cornwall’s Integrated Care Board said there were “no easy choices” – the service simply wasn’t safe to provide “at the moment.”
More than just an inconvenience
For most of the region, “go to Exeter instead” sounds simple on paper. In reality, it means:
- Long journeys with no guarantees. Councillor Andrea Davis raised the lack of public transport and patchy mobile signal across the area. MP Ian Roome asked the trust directly what an “acceptable” journey time in labour would even look like and whether anyone had planned for roadworks, accidents, or seasonal traffic.
- Money most families don’t have spare. Councillor Caroline Leaver pointed out that many residents don’t have access to a car, let alone the funds for extra travel or a hotel stay near Exeter if labour starts unpredictably.
- A whole community on edge. Councillor Graham Bell described “massive fear” rippling through Bude, Torridge, and southern Somerset – areas that also rely on this unit.
Councillor Cheryl Cottle-Hunkin put it simply: “Our geography is a fact but it shouldn’t be a risk to a mother’s health.”
A story that says it all
Phoebe Hawkins spoke with the BBC about giving birth to premature twins at Barnstaple before they were transferred to Bath – the seven nearest major hospitals were full. She’d called her midwife just for reassurance, only to discover she was already in labour.
“I know personally I wouldn’t have driven all the way to Exeter to have been checked out just for some reassurance,” she said. “I dread to think what would have happened if I hadn’t gone to be seen.”
Her twins, born at 28 weeks, were given steroids at Barnstaple that likely saved their lives. The family went on to spend five weeks in the hospital’s special baby care unit, which has also been temporarily closed.
What happens next
Hundreds of people protested in Barnstaple over the weekend, demanding the unit reopen. The council’s scrutiny committee has made five recommendations, including:
- A formal restoration plan
- An impact assessment
- A lessons-learnt review
- A fragile services report
- A letter to the Secretary of State
Devon County Council has also asked for a seat on the NHS Devon and Cornwall Integrated Care Board, so decisions like this one don’t get made without local voices in the room.
The bigger picture
This isn’t happening in isolation. Midwifery-led units across the UK are closing their doors, sometimes for entire months at a time – and often with little warning to the women who planned to give birth in them.
We dig into why on page 26 of the latest issue of Birthbabe Magazine, and it connects directly to something else we’ve been shouting about: the NHS isn’t short of trained midwives. It’s short of jobs for them.
Read Safia Saad’s piece on the midwife recruitment crisis to understand how these two stories are the same story. 💔
If you’re affected by the North Devon closure and want to make your voice heard, contact your local MP or get involved with your area’s Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership.
Image: BBC News
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