Reconfiguration of maternity services - a political hot potato
Dr. Sheila Shribman, the maternity & children’s services advisor to the Department of Health has come up with her recommendations for the re-configuration of children’s & maternity services in England. As is the fashion currently, she calls for centralisation of services into large regional super-centres with peripheral units providing community services.
Having had experience up close of the politics surrounding a reasonably well performing unit under threat of closure due to local reconfiguration, I am not too convinced of the merits of this strategy. Besides, midwives & obstetricians are already at loggerheads about the relative validity of each others position. There can be numerous valid reasons for services to be amalgamated but this is unlikely to be what the community wants & if so, what exactly does Patient Choice mean?
It appears to be the “in thing” to blame the European Working Time Directive for much of the reconfiguration while at the same time reducing the number of doctors & other clinical staff working in the health service.
The NHS traditionally has not done workforce planning very well & decisions are made by people remote from the coalface. I am curious to see what the Health Select Committee reports on this but it is tempered by the knowledge that evidence was obtained mostly from the higher echelons of the medical establishment. Considering the performance to date of Modernising Medical Careers (MMC), I doubt very much that people at ground level have much confidence in those representing them.
March 4th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
[...] NHS maternity care is being restructured. I touched upon this here & here as [...]
April 12th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
[...] see above. Also please refer to the plans for reconfiguration of maternity services published by your department. Does the right to choose not apply to the larger number of women who [...]