Salford mayor Paul Dennett has called for “urgent” action to reopen a birth unit which has been closed for more than two years.
Ingleside Birth and Community Centre is a refurbished former care home run by midwives from the Bolton NHS Foundation Trust.
It was opened in 2018 after maternity services at Salford Royal Hospital were scrapped – but due to a lack of ‘safe staffing’ births at Ingleside stopped in January 2022. But antenatal and postnatal services are still offered at the site.
Paul Dennett, who leads Salford council, said the situation is “deeply concerning” and called on healthcare bosses to resolve the issue without delay.
He said:
“Salford Labour Party are determined to make sure Salford mothers and families can have babies born in Salford again and will be working with partners to make sure this happens as soon as is practicable.
“Despite significant national government attention to maternity and neonatal services over recent times, it really is deeply concerning that we find ourselves in this current predicament.
“Salford City Council, working with our outstanding Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) at the time, sought to meaningfully engage with national policy recommendations when we refurbished Ingleside and established it as a freestanding midwife-led unit for mothers, families and newborn babies in Salford.
“To now find ourselves with a state-of-the-art facility that isn’t fully operational is truly tragic, especially given the current challenges facing maternity and neonatal services in Greater Manchester and beyond.
“Salford Labour Party therefore calls on Greater Manchester’s Integrated Care Board, NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care to urgently work with all interested parties to deliver excellent maternity and neonatal services for Salford families, mothers and newborns.”
Despite the issues at the site, Salford council agreed to renew Bolton NHS Foundation Trust’s five-year lease at Ingleside. The new terms will see part of the site sub-let to create more capacity for GP appointments from Orient Road Medical Practice.
Councillor Jim Cammell warned that the town hall must “ensure that the sub-letting will not impact the ability to reopen the centre for birthing when it’s approved.”
A report by Salford council stated that Bolton NHS Foundation Trust and other partners are ‘working to reduce the staffing deficit to facilitate the safe reopening of Ingleside as a birthing unit’ – but that there is still ‘no confirmed date’ for when this will happen.
Mr Dennett added:
“With significant further austerity cuts on the horizon for NHS Greater Manchester, further national policy interventions since 2016 in the form of the Ockenden Review, and real quality and performance challenges within Greater Manchester’s maternity and neonatal services currently, it’s critical that Greater Manchester’s Integrated Care Board urgently looks to address long-standing workforce planning challenges within maternity and neonatal services that underpins NHS Greater Manchester’s inability to give Salford mothers and families the choice of utilising this state-of-the-art birth setting.”
Tyrone Roberts, chief nursing officer at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“In January 2022, we made the difficult decision to pause birthing at Ingleside, and since then we regrettably have been unable to resume due to challenges around staffing.
“Delivering safe, effective and high quality care for pregnant people and their families is always our highest priority. We’re continuing to deliver care at Royal Bolton Hospital to provide support throughout a families’ pregnancy journey.
“Ingleside remains open for antenatal and postnatal appointments and we’re pleased to still provide home births with one of our experienced midwives for those who choose that option.
“Whilst births have been paused at Ingleside, we have worked with Salford council and the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board to sublet a small area of the centre to Orient Road Medical Practice.
“The practice will use a part of the building away from where our birthing pools are located, meaning we’ll be able to use them again as soon as it is safe and appropriate to do so.”
The Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership was contacted for comment.
