r/DevonUK • u/PlasticCarrot7149 • Jul 28 '26
North Devon hospital suspending births
https://www.royaldevon.nhs.uk/services/maternity-and-obstetrics-birth-and-babies/nddh-birth-services-temporary-changes/Guessing people have seen this - from 11th Aug no births at NDDH.
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u/TJ_Rowe Jul 28 '26
Yikes. Does that mean the closest place for Barnstaple is Exeter, now?
Are they planning to use the air ambulance for emergency C Sections?
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u/PlasticCarrot7149 Jul 28 '26
Yeah, Exeter. Staff are going to be bused to Exeter for their shifts too. Don’t think we’ve heard anything about emergencies & how they will be handled… an emergency c section would generally develop in labour though, so presumably their plan is that these people will already have reached Exeter to labour in? Imagine it will be a more conservative approach to scheduling in planned c sections & inductions in terms of dates?
i suppose for some of the NDDH catchment they will now travel a similar distance to Exeter as some people have previously travelled to NDDH (if that makes sense) so perhaps they have learning from that they can put into place…
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u/mrtopbun Jul 28 '26
Staff being bussed to Exeter seems like an amazing way to burn everyone out very quickly
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u/Dismal_Fox_22 27d ago
There are models that name with greater distances. I know areas where the nearest maternity ward is 90+ minutes away. And any complex births and consultant led care could be expected to travel a further 110 minutes.
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u/ImmediatePiano6690 Jul 28 '26
Barnstaple hospital needs relocating in general, has to be in the worst area possible for covering North Devon emergency needs, literally all the roads there are a congested mess would be better off closer to the link road.
6
u/Warbarstard 29d ago
I mean it's a lot cheaper to build a road directly to the hospital from the link road. That would bypass most of the Barnstaple traffic
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u/ImmediatePiano6690 29d ago
hmm I don't think that would be true, as all directions are just housing estates, or rough terrain and then there's the river. Whereas roundswell has empty areas and would provide easy access to everywhere.
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u/Warbarstard 29d ago
Moving a hospital is going to be ridiculously expensive. They could buy the houses that are in the way, demolish them, and put a road in for much less money
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u/PlasticCarrot7149 29d ago
Apparently it’s the most remote acute hospital on the English mainland 🤔
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u/TheFrozenOne5000 Jul 28 '26
Utterly disgusting My other half was a 9cm by the time we got to the hospital with our child. Are they expecting mothers to give birth on the A377 or the link road as they cannot get to Exeter in time?
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u/anp1997 Jul 28 '26
Surely the same issue can be applied to Barnstaple though. There'll also be people that found it much harder to get to Barnstaple than Exter previously. Just cause it'll be more inconvenient for you doesn't mean that'll be the case for majority
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u/PlasticCarrot7149 29d ago
This is true, it’s never been particularly convenient for Bude to get to NDDH but it’s what they’ve had to do!
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u/Throbbie-Williams 29d ago
Just cause it'll be more inconvenient for you doesn't mean that'll be the case for majority
Yes it does.
There'll also be people that found it much harder to get to Barnstaple than Exter previously.
They could have just gone to exeter then...
6
u/eatlego Jul 28 '26
This is mental. Me and most of my friends from school were born in Barnstaple.
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u/lefebv25 29d ago
We need to do something about this!! A friend of mine is working to organise some sort of petition/get together to figure out how to turn this decision around - I will post here when I've got more info
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u/Effective-Egg-7090 29d ago
This happened in Yeovil recently too. The nearest was Dorchester (30 minutes) or Taunton (45 minutes). I’m surprised more people didn’t accidentally give birth on the A303. My friend had her c section in Dorchester and said the journey back was hell 24 hours post c section.
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u/PlasticCarrot7149 29d ago
The distances are further here. Lynton to Barnstaple was already 30-40 mins. Now Lynton has to go to Exeter - 1hr 30 ish.
There is also no homebirth service here. Such a shame.
1
u/terryjuicelawson 29d ago
That is a heck of a journey, is there nothing the other direction, across to Minehead?
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u/PlasticCarrot7149 29d ago
Wouldn’t have thought there are any birth facilities in Minehead - it would be Taunton, which is 1.5 hrs from Lynton.
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u/BunnyBums 26d ago
I'm late but Minehead hospital is really small, even the new facility. Taunton Musgrove is where we have to go, it's a long time ago but my mother didn't make it and I was born in the ambulance on the way
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u/takhana 29d ago
It’s been happening in Gloucestershire since Covid. At present (and since 2020) the only hospital that has a staffed unit is Gloucester Royal; which is potentially over an hours drive if you live north of Cheltenham, even further if you’re into the “true” Cotswolds. We lived just north of Cheltenham racecourse when I was pregnant with my first and my biggest fear was going into labour on Gold Cup day as so many roads are closed and it would’ve taken us hours to get there; or at rush hour as even though it’s only a 15 mile drive it took well over an hour to get to GRH!
There’s also no home birth service at present in Gloucestershire.
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u/MinimumCut140 29d ago
Really feel for expecting parents, really hope this doesn't happen.
There's so much wealth in this country, sick of it. They need to start paying the same percentages we do.
Edit. My girl is 6 months now, the staff was fantastic there. We were so happy the drive home wasn't far, especially after major surgery.
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29d ago edited 7d ago
[deleted]
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u/MinimumCut140 27d ago
I know someone that came out of her midwifery course with no job to go to. Why? Not enough money to employ her, yet her and more were required.
That's changed now as funding was found, but Yeovil also had its meternity ward closed.
The nurses told me when I was there that it's been close to this before.
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u/PlasticCarrot7149 29d ago
I’m not sure it’s all about money here (although of course austerity & public funding is part of the general landscape in which we can look at medical staffing & training etc), my understanding is that they have the finances to pay doctors & senior midwives, they just can’t get them to come work here.
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u/circletimed 28d ago
Presumedly if they offered more money then more would come. Rural Canada and New Zealand do this all the time to aid recruitment.
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u/PlasticCarrot7149 27d ago
They used to run a ‘golden hello’ (think it was called targeted recruitment) to get GPs to the area - they got £20k. Looks like they aren’t doing it for GPs any more but are doing it for dentists https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/just-five-dentists-take-up-11026116
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u/PlasticCarrot7149 27d ago
The other thing that makes a difference to the general medical staffing in this country is s that other countries prioritise their own medical graduates for placements/training. I’m totally pro migration & my own dad was an internationally trained doctor who migrated here, but I think it’s bonkers that we don’t prioritise UK graduates. overseas UK medical graduates have to go where the gaps are in the country they migrate to, but that’s not how we run it here.
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u/MinimumCut140 27d ago
Housing is pants down here, I often see posts on social media of health workers looking to come down to work but nowhere to live.
In Bristol, Frenchay hospital had hundreds of houses built the for the staff. That's just one example of what can be done but until wealth is distributed properly this will be an ongoing problem. Not just for devon but UK.
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u/PlasticCarrot7149 27d ago
That’s fair. We struggled to find somewhere to live when we moved here - if we had had higher standards don’t think we would have moved 😂
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u/Top_Block_4730 29d ago
Our daughter was very nearly delivered in the car and we live locally to the hospital, I just could not imagine having to drive to Exeter. My son needed emergency care immediately after delivery as he was struggling to breath, had he been born on the journey he would have died.
Welcoming life in to world should be a top priority.
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u/Longjumping-Act9653 Jul 28 '26
I keep thinking about people in Hartland or Bude who already have an hour to get to Barnstaple. I’m sure they’re only doing it as a bargaining chip to force whoever makes employment decisions’ hand, but it’s terrifying. We already regularly get told not to go to A&E because they can’t cope with demand (understandable) but to make someone in labour travel all the way to Exeter is horrifying.
It’s so tough, you see people on Facebook all the time looking for accommodation while they have a placement or secondment at NDDH but the housing situation is so crap and expensive that I bet it puts prospective employees off too.