Trust Board Febuary 2010 - Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals

SWBTB (2/10) 035 (a)
Appendix 7
Birmingham City Council and Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council Joint
Health Scrutiny Committee - 7th January, 2010
Resolved:
(1) that, whilst the Joint Committee would ideally have preferred that full maternity provision
would remain at Sandwell, in the light of the evidence which it had received regarding
maternity services it supported the adoption of Option 3 of the public consultation document
"Improving services for giving birth" which is "temporarily relocate all births (normal and
complicated) to City Hospital, and then set up a Community Birth Centre in Sandwell that is not
attached to a hospital site" with the caveat that the Midwife-led Birth Centre be built and be
operational in Sandwell before maternity services are withdrawn from the Sandwell Hospital;
(2) that if resolution (1) above is not supported by the Sandwell PCT Board the Joint Committee
is minded to refer the matter to the Secretary of State for Health under Section 4 Paragraph 7
of the Local Authority (Overview and Scrutiny Committees Health Scrutiny Functions)
Regulations 2002 since it believes the proposals in the consultation document as they stand are
not in the interests of the health service in the area of the Committee's local authorities
because of the following reasons:-
(a) they do not fit with the national choice guarantee (as introduced in the 2007 Department of
Health guidance document "Maternity Matters") and care closer to home agenda, set out in
"Our Health Our Care Our Say";
(b) the capacity of provision at City Hospital to deal with an increase in the numbers of mothers
using its maternity services was questionable particularly due to other NHS consultations in the
Birmingham area around future provision of maternity services potentially also having an
impact on the numbers using City Hospital;
(c) it believes more research is required to give a full regional perspective on future
requirements for maternity provision;
(3) that the two chairs of the Joint Committee request an invitation to the Sandwell PCT Board
when the decision is made over the future commissioning of maternity services in Sandwell and
West Birmingham;
(4) that if a different decision is made by the Sandwell PCT Board to the options contained in
the consultation document or the Joint Committee’s recommendation contained in (1) above
then the Joint Committee will meet as a matter of urgency to decide a response to the decision
of the PCT Board;
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