THE ‘temporary closure’ of the birthing unit at Okehampton Hospital which has seen a freeze on women giving birth there for more than two years is set to continue into the new year, NHS bosses revealed this week.

The NHS says the decision originally made back in the summer of 2017 on deliveries of babies and overnight stays would remain in place for the time being because midwives were needed at RD&E’s main maternity facility.

It cited ‘patient safety’ as the reason why the policy of women giving birth in Exeter — or at home attended by a midwife based in Exeter — remained in place. Antenatal and postnatal clinics however continue to be held in the hopsital in Okehampton, alongside a number of other hospital clinics.

A spokesperson for the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust said: ‘The temporary suspension of deliveries and overnight stays remains in place at Okehampton for reasons of patient safety and will next be reviewed by the trust in the new year.

‘An increasing number of women with complications in pregnancy are needing to give birth at the RD&E’s main maternity facility in Exeter and the trust is requiring its midwifery unit to work more consistently within the acute unit to safely meet the needs of these patients.’

A spokesperson for the NHS Devon Clinical Commissioning Group, which makes policy decisions on how NHS money in the county should be spent, said: ‘We continue to support the temporary closure of community midwifery units at Okehampton Hospital on the grounds of safety. Patient safety has always been our number one priority.’

Previously a national shortage of midwives had also been blamed for the decision to shut the unit in July 2017, shortly after an ‘acute services review’ conducted by the NHS in Devon recommended a policy of midwives being based in hospitals where there are consultants on call should complications arise.

The NHS has said that there was only an average of one birth a week in the hospital in Okehampton in any case.

However, there remains sadness among the staff who worked in the Okehampton unit that women no longer have the choice of giving birth close to home and that the facilities remain mothballed. This is shared by people in the community who have family who have used the maternity unit in the past.

One woman said: ‘The NHS are dealing with a budget and how to make that money go as far as it possibly can. I understand that completely but it is a shame that women cannot have their delivery in Okehampton when possible.

‘It was more family friendly and if you lived in Okehampton and you already had a child it was easier for the partner to visit. It was more homely and more relaxed.’