Liverpool Women's faces 'uncertain future' as people react to huge shake-up

A major shake-up of Liverpool's NHS services - which could see maternity services moved away from the city's famous Women's Hospital - has been met with strong views on all sides.

The NHS today published a major case for change in how maternity and gynaecology services are delivered in the city. Health bosses believe the safest move will be to co-locate these services on one of the city's large, acute hospital sites like the Royal Liverpool Hospital - and away from the much-loved Women's Hospital building in Toxteth.

NHS Cheshire and Merseyside’s board will consider the case for change at a meeting on October 9. Subject to the board’s approval of the document, a period of public engagement will begin on October 15, giving people an opportunity to share their views.

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The majority of hospital gynaecology and maternity care in the city takes place at Liverpool Women’s Hospital on Crown Street. In their new proposals, NHS bosses argue the biggest challenge facing these services is the fact they are on a different site to most other acute and emergency hospital care. Liverpool Women’s is the only specialist centre for gynaecology and maternity in the country where this arrangement exists.

The NHS says this current set-up can create problems and delays with care, with seriously ill patients sometimes having to be transferred by ambulance to other local hospitals. Currently around 220 ambulance transfers are made between Liverpool Women’s Hospital and the Royal Liverpool or Aintree hospitals every year and about half of these ambulance journeys are emergencies.

This is not the first time proposals have been put forward to move maternity services. The Liverpool Women's Hospital only opened in its current Toxteth home in 1995 but has been the subject of a number of closure and relocation proposals - as well as the subject of plenty of campaigns against any such moves. Since 2015, Liverpool Women's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has argued patient safety would be improved by re-locating the service close to a major acute hospital where patients can be quickly transferred in emergencies.

In 2016 plans were announced to move Liverpool Women's Hospital out of its home under a major NHS shake-up. The preferred proposal was for maternity and women's services to be relocated to a new £100m facility next to the new Royal Liverpool Hospital - which was due to open the following year but would go on to be delayed by five years. These proposals sparked large campaigns, protests and rallies by those desperate to keep the Women's Hospital on its current site and as an individual facility for the women of the city.

It seems likely local health bosses could face stiff opposition for this new approach to changing how these services are delivered. But while some will plan to fight any proposed changes, others have expressed support for the rationale behind the potential move.

Reacting to today's story, Amanda Dempsey said: "They say it's not fit in emergency situations. Why not upgrade the facilities then? And why was it perfectly fine when it was built in 1995. It's just about cutting services not improving existing ones. This hospital serves the women of Liverpool and other areas well and it's a service we cannot afford to do without."

Cllr Alan Gibbons, who leads the Liverpool Community Independents group on Liverpool Council, said: "Liverpool Women's Hospital has provided excellent services for years. One of my daughters recently received excellent care there. An original proposal to move the hospital to the Royal was rightly withdrawn, but once more the Women's appears to face an uncertain future.

"The Women's Hospital specifically addresses maternity, women and their children. Its future as an independent site should be protected within the context of reversing cuts to the NHS. We have had too many ill-considered reorganisations dating back to Andrew Lansley. A thriving Women's Hospital should be part of repairing and restoring the damage to the NHS during 14 years of Tory misrule. A petition to this end already has 70,000 signatures."

But midwife Liane Brady disagreed. She said: "I’m a midwife and people need to understand that when women who are pregnant or have delivered babies and are seriously ill with non-pregnancy related conditions it is safer for them and their babies to be in hospital with an obstetric and general department. Women are presenting with many more health complications than they did in previous decades. I know people love the Women’s but this move would be safer for a lot of women."

Deb Price agreed, adding: "It’s not a disgrace. It’s safer for the women that need extended support that can’t get it in the women’s … the facilities just aren’t there."

Outlining the case for change, Dr Lynn Greenhalgh, Chief Medical Officer for Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “NHS staff in Liverpool have put in place a range of measures to manage the risks that come from gynaecology and maternity services being separate from other hospital care. However, while we are working hard to keep care safe for now, we can’t resolve all of the challenges under current arrangements.

“The health needs of our population, and the treatments we provide, have changed a lot since Liverpool Women’s Hospital first opened and increasingly gynaecology and maternity patients require input from specialists who are not based on Crown Street. This can impact on people with other serious health conditions that need to be managed alongside their gynaecology and maternity care, those who develop unexpected complications which need urgent support from a different team or from an intensive care unit, and people with very complex surgical needs, including many patients with gynaecological cancer.

“We want everyone to receive the best care possible wherever they are being treated in Liverpool. Setting out the issues in the case for change is an important first step in recognising the situation as it stands today, so that we can work with staff, patients, the public and our wider stakeholders, to decide on the best way to move forward.”

When asked by the ECHO if she believes that the way to go is to co-locate maternity services at the city's larger, acute hospitals and away from Crown Street, Dr Greenhalgh said: "Yes, absolutely."