Hospital maternity unit reopening date delayed
BBCThe reopening of a hospital's maternity services has been delayed by health bosses.
Birthing services at North Devon District Hospital (NDDH) in Barnstaple have been closed since 11 August due to staffing issues, meaning pregnant women face a 53-mile (85km) trip to Exeter to give birth.
The Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, had provisionally planned to reopen the services on 29 September.
Bosses have now said the service would remain closed as they were not in a position to reopen as anticipated.
The trust has not set a new provisional opening date, but said it would complete another assessment on 28 September and then every two weeks after then if needed.
It said despite "extensive efforts", including a national recruitment campaign, the trust was unable to meet the agreed staffing threshold needed to safely reopen services.
A spokesperson said the trust remained committed to keeping maternity services at the hospital and had formally requested support from the wider NHS.
They said the trust was also exploring international recruitment.
Dr Vanessa Purday, the trust's chief medical officer, said it was "deeply disappointing" not to be able to reopen the maternity unit in Barnstaple.
"While we have made progress on recruiting to both our consultant and registrar rotas, we still have further work to do to meet our thresholds and to complete the comprehensive onboarding and induction programme all new staff who join our teams must undertake," she said.
She said the 29 September date was "always conditional" on final staffing and safety assurances, adding it "remains safer" to keep the suspension in place.
"This is not a decision to permanently close birthing services at NDDH," she said.
"We remain fully committed to reopening the service and will continue to be open and transparent about our progress, the challenges we face and the steps we're taking to address them."
