Northampton and Kettering General suspend home birth service under Covid pressures

Both of Northamptonshire's general hospitals have suspended their home birth services.

Northampton and Kettering General will be unable to send midwifery teams into the community for expecting mothers. It is not known when the service will resume.

The announcement this week (January 13) said both hospitals were facing "increased demand for services" under the pressures of Covid and the winter months.

A statement from the trust reads: "In light of the increased demand for services we have taken the difficult decision to temporarily suspend our home birth services.

"While we understand that this may be upsetting news, the safety of families in our care is paramount.

"We continue to monitor this situation extremely closely and will resume normal services across the county as soon as safe to do so.

"Anyone who is affected by this decision will be contacted as soon as possible."

It comes after the two hospitals announced on Tuesday that they were dealing with 401 Covid-positive patients, amounting to 36 per cent of the 1,100 beds.

In an emotional plea, KGH chief executive Eileen Doyle said in a statement: "If you're a non-believer of Covid — although I'm not sure how anyone can be — it's really important that we all have a responsibility to try and help the NHS maintain that capacity for those who need it.

"Your mum, dad, your nan, might have a stroke, might have a heart attack.

"All of these dreadful things happen and we have to maintain enough capacity in every acute hospital to be able to deal with those life-threatening emergencies.

"For those who perhaps think: 'I've got away this far, I'm not going to get Covid, I'll be fine, I'll have the vaccine in a little while', you may not get Covid, but you may spin off the road."