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History of the Campaign |
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On 20 June 2005, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust announced that, due to staffing level issues, The Grange Birth Centre (in Petersfield) and Blackbrook Birth Centre (in Fareham) would be closed for the delivery of babies and for all post-natal transfers from 4th July 2005, for approximately 6 months. Every woman in Petersfield and the surrounding area deserves to have choice about where to have her baby, and by closing The Grange, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust are reducing this right to choice. The Save the Grange campaign group was quickly formed to
respond to this announcement, and has been meeting on a regular basis
since its inception to demonstrate and protest against the
closure. We held a very successful public meeting on 27th June 2005. Approximately 200 local people attended, to demonstrate their support for the Grange, and to work out an action plan for the campaign. On the day of the Birth Centre closures (4th July 2005), we held a pram rally in Petersfield Square (with approximately 200 people in attendance), and a bed-sit protest at Petersfield Hospital. We ran a stall at Rams Walk, Petersfield on 21st July 2005 to publicise our campaign to the public, collect signatures for our petition, and gain views from the public on their experiences of The Grange. Our second Public Meeting, on 28th July 2005, was chaired by Michael Mates, MP, and had 320 people in attendance. We were given a commitment to re-opening the birth centres "as soon as it is safe to do so" by Donna Ockendon (Head of Midwifery, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust), and financial support was promised by Bill Shields (Deputy Chief Executive and Finance Director of PH NHS Trust). The Save the Grange campaign group are holding regular
meetings with Donna Ockendon, but to date we have received no
indication of when Birth centres will be re-opened. We have held
monthly meetings with the Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust to monitor the
situation, and gain clarification of when the Grange will re-open. We launched our "When" campaign on 8th October 2005 to put
additional pressure on the Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust to commit to
a date when the Grange Birth Centre can be re-opened. On 8th December 2005 we travelled to Downing Street with members of the campaign group to hand in our 10,000 signature petition against the closure of our local birth centres. You can find out more about the day, and see some photos here. Many thanks to all of you that signed our petition, and who came up to London. After our fantastic day up to Downing Street we have received a letter from Tony Blair’s office in receipt of our petition. It also states that a minister from the Dept of Health will send a reply. We will publish this reply to the campaign group when it arrives. PCT meeting – Also in December members of the campaign group gave a presentation to the Chief Exec of our Primary Care Trust, John Wilderspin. The presentation focused on the benefits of birth centres and about different models of maternity staffing. We hope it has helped as part of the options appraisal process. Mary and Joseph and a donkey! – Four fantastic people went beyond the call of duty just before Christmas. Suezi and Gavin Siggers dressed up as Mary and Joseph on a cold December morning and stood outside Petersfield Hospital with Guinness the donkey for our pre-Christmas photo shoot. Amazing as Suezi was 41+ weeks pregnant at the time! NCT press office had asked us to provide a picture for a national press release all about closure of birth centres across the country. As a result of this “No room at the inn” national press release ITV national lunchtime news were interested in our plight. On the Friday before Christmas the lights and cameras arrived and they interviewed Mandy and Seb Foster and Sarah Roberts and we made great feature on national news!!– Huge thanks to Suezi, Gavin, Mandy, Seb and Guinness! On 20th January 2006 some of the campaign group met with PCT
and NHS to discuss their plan to reopen The Grange. Portsmouth
Hospitals Trust has revealed that they are in a
worse staffing position now than they were nearly eight months ago when
they ‘temporarily’ closed the Grange Birth centre. Save the Grange
Campaigners were astonished to discover that the whole time equivalent
(WTE) staff shortages has risen from 22 WTE in July 05 (when the Grange
was closed) to 41 WTE in Jan 06 (7 months after ‘temporary’ closure).
With no decrease in the number of maternity leave, increased sickness
and 12 vacancies the situation is much worse than last summer and shows
no sign of improving. On 1st February 2006, three of the campaign group (and their babies) travelled to London to attend the All Party Parliamentary Group on Maternity Services with Liam Byrne MP. At the meeting Mr Byrne promised to take direct action by contacting East Hants Primary Care Trust to investigate the current closure of the Grange Birth Centre. On 22nd February 2006 we held our third Public Meeting at the Festival Hall, Petersfield. The meeting was attended by 245 local people, and was chaired by Michael Mates, MP. Ursula Ward, Chief Executive of Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust disappointed campaigners by failing to give the public a date when the Grange Birth Centre will re-open. Mrs Ward suggested that the Grange ‘may’ re-open in the autumn but gave campaigners no firm date. This disappointment reinforces campaigners fear that the failure by the NHS Trust to reopen the ‘temporarily’ closed birth centre is due to the fact that it may be permanently axed. On 4th July 2006 Mums and babies met in Petersfield to mark the first anniversary of the closure of the Grange birth centre. We are disappointed that, despite continuous promises from the NHS Trust, we still have no date for re-opening and the threat of permanent closure due to maternity services reconfiguration still hangs over our heads. On 11th July 2006 Sarah Roberts (Save the Grange) and Mel Watson (Bring Back Blackbrook Babies) met with the Health Minister, Ivan Lewis MP, at Westminster. They appraised the minister of the current situation regarding maternity services in Petersfield and Fareham. Mr Lewis pledged to ‘keep an eye’ on the current closures in Petersfield and Fareham. He promised to contact local PCT and NHS Trust to get a firmer timeline in order to provide a ‘transparent’ guide to the future of the birth centres. On 9th August 2006, Ivan Lewis, MP, told Michael Mates, MP
that the Grange birth centre would reopen in the Autumn, subject to
staff recruitment. On 18th September 2006 we met with Portsmouth Hospitals Trust,
who confirmed that they are working towards reopening the Grange for
births at the end of October. On 30th October 2006 the Grange birth centre re-opened for
births. Some antenatal and postnatal clinics will be held at the
Grange, and labouring women will be able to come to the Grange for the
birth of their child. No postnatal stays are available at
present, as the birth centre is not staffed 24 hours a day, so mother
and baby will be discharged a few hours after the birth. On 23rd July 2007 Hampshire PCT launched their maternity
services public consultation. This document reviews the future of
the Birth Centres in South East Hampshire, and recommends that the
Grange is one of the birth centres to remain open. The
consultation will run until 31st October 2007. The Save The
Grange campaign team are very optimistic that this could lead to full
staffing of the birth centre. |
Documentation
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The pages from the Agenda Pack from the first Public Meeting (27th June) are available by following the links below: The Cover Sheet [Microsoft Word Document] The Grange Birth Centre Closure Summary [Microsoft Word Document] The Advantages of Birth Centres [Microsoft Word Document] The NHS Maternity Services Framework [Microsoft Word Document] Some sample letters [Microsoft Word Document] Petersfield and Liss NCT Branch press release on the Grange Closure (21 June 2005) Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust Board Meeting Dates for 2005 [Microsoft Word Document] Health Related Public Meeting Dates in 2005 [Microsoft Word Document] Poster to accompany petitions [PDF] The Petition Form [PDF] |