Birth centres across Britain are under threat because of a shortage of cash and midwives, campaigners have warned.The National Childbirth Trust is urging the government to take action after six of the NHS-run units recently closed permanently or temporarily.
The centres, of which Britain has about 100, offer more "homely" care than maternity units, campaigners say.
The government said it was up to NHS trusts to decide how best to provide a choice of maternity services.The NCT said the closures in Hampshire, West Yorkshire and Lancashire were threatening to undermine the government's pledge that by 2009 women will have a choice of where and how they can give birth.
Birth centres are run by the NHS either in the community or linked to hospitals. They are staffed by midwives.
But the NCT said the units were being affected by cash shortages - one in four trusts finished last year in deficit - and a shortage of midwives that has led some trusts to recall staff to hospitals.
This report was from BBC Online.
Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in NHS
Comments (0)
TrackBack (10)
Warning: file(http://63.247.138.2/~bartholo/randomquotes.dump) [function.file]: failed to open stream: No route to host in /home/bartholo/public_html/archives/2005/11/how_much_has_th.php on line 275
Warning: implode() [function.implode]: Invalid arguments passed in /home/bartholo/public_html/archives/2005/11/how_much_has_th.php on line 275
