AM calls for local maternity services to be protected (From Tivyside Advertiser)
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AM calls for local maternity services to be protected
2:47pm Friday 23rd September 2011 in News
Ceredigion AM Elin Jones AM has called on the Welsh Government to rule out downgrading maternity services at Bronglais General Hospital, Aberystwyth.
The Health Minister this week published a document on the future of maternity services in Wales, in which she stated that “specialist skills may need to be centralised and staffed accordingly”.
In response, the Ceredigion AM and Plaid Cymru’s health spokesperson, warned that any downgrading of local services could only lead to a deterioration of services and increased risk to mothers and babies.
During a debate at the Senedd this week on the Health Minister’s plans for maternity services in Wales, Elin Jones AM said: “It is right that the Government’s strategy should encourage more midwife-led births and should aim to improve the health advice and support that is available to mother and child.
“However, there is still a high percentage of births that require additional intervention and such clinical intervention is frequently unscheduled and the need arises during the birth itself. That is why there has been opposition, and there continues to be opposition, in so many areas of Wales to the plans to close consultant-led maternity units”.
Following the debate, Elin Jones AM further commented: “I was actively involved in the campaign before the 2007 elections against the then plans by the Labour Welsh Government to downgrade maternity care at Bronglais and centralise specialist services at Glangwili. Now that Labour are once again in government alone, I’m very concerned that these proposals are resurfacing.
“It’s critically important that maternity services are retained on a more local level for the sake of mothers and their babies. Having to face a long ambulance journey to Glangwili should complications arise would be wholly unacceptable and I’ll continue to fight Labour’s plans to downgrade maternity services at Bronglais”.
