Hospital Dismisses Rumour of Maternity Closure

5.31.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 21st Feb 2005

The West Middlesex hospital has firmly denied persistent rumours in the Twickenham area that the maternity unit is due to close. The Chief Executive, Gail Wannell, has confirmed in a letter to Twickenham MP Vincent Cable that there is absolutely no risk of closure of the unit - which was recently awarded a Charter Mark for the third successive year.

Vincent Cable said: "local expectant mothers will, I hope, find this reassurance of some comfort. I think the stories started circulating because the unit is clearly under some pressure - with the number of births increasing by 20% last year and staff shortages - and has been cutting back on some services such as routine post natal visiting at weekends and patient education".

"I think the underlying problem, which dogs this hospital, is a chronic shortage of local, non-agency staff. There are severe shortages in other departments like audiology, which means that hundreds of local people cannot get help with their hearing. And now the shortages have spread to maternity. It is so frustrating that with more resources being poured into the NHS, first line services are being negatively affected in this way."