ERI shut to pregnant women 107 times a year

HEAVILY pregnant mums are being turned away from a flagship maternity unit TWICE a week on average because it is too full and cannot meet demand, the Evening News can reveal.

The vital Edinburgh Royal Infirmary unit cannot cope and closes to mums every three days – forcing bewildered pregnant women to be seen elsewhere.

New figures have shown that the birthing unit at the Royal Infirmary was placed “on divert” on 107 occasions last year, meaning mums in labour had no option but to have their babies more than 20 miles away at St John’s Hospital in Livingston.

On each occasion the unit, where a new £2.8 million birthing suite was opened just 15 months ago, was closed to non-complex births for between 30 minutes and 12 hours due to a lack of staff or capacity.

The startling scenario is made all the worse when offset against the region’s exploding birth rate and lifestyle changes which mean the average age of a first-time mum is now 29.

With the number of births in the region now standing at up to 9500 a year, and the proven likelihood of mature mums being more likely to suffer from birthing complications, critics have been quick to label the “part-time” ERI unit a “scandal”. One doctor told us: “Mums deserve better treatment than this.”

The damning figures were revealed as it was warned that a staffing crisis which has threatened the children’s ward at St John’s Hospital could spread to hit vital neonatal and paediatric services in the Capital.

NHS Lothian said that the number of births being diverted away from the Royal Infirmary had remained stable in recent years, but the only previously publicised figures suggested the problem is 
deepening.

In the first seven months of 2010, the unit shut 51 times, meaning it would have closed on 87 occasions had the same pattern been repeated throughout the year.

The Scottish Conservatives, who obtained the figures through the Freedom of Information Act, said that in the rest of Scotland diverting mothers from hospitals had only occurred on “a handful” of occasions, yet the process had potentially disrupted hundreds of Lothian mothers at a vital stage of their pregnancy.

The party’s health spokesperson, Jackson Carlaw, said: “These findings are alarming, and frankly families across the Lothians deserve better than this. The health board and the Scottish Government must get together urgently and work out how to stop this happening.