THE NHS has stated the current closure of Okehampton Hospital’s maternity unit had no connection with proposals to permanently close the service outlined in the county wide Acute Services Review.

Doctors, nurses and consultants have been reviewing a range of acute services in hospitals in Exeter, Plymouth, Torquay and Barnstaple to see how they could be provided more effectively.

The first stage of the review has recommended all four acute hospitals in Devon would continue with A&E, emergency stroke services and maternity services. However, it also revealed it will be exploring the potential to relocate four midwifery-led maternity units at Okehampton, Newton Abbot, Honiton and Tiverton alongside consultant-led units at its main hospital sites.

Last week, the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust announced that maternity services in Okehampton and Honiton were suspended and would remain suspended for three months due to staff shortages.

A Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust spokesman said: ‘Patient safety is our top priority and due to a combination of staff vacancies and unforeseen sickness absence, maternity services at Honiton and Okehampton were suspended on Thursday, July 20 and will remain suspended initially for three months until we have safe staffing levels.

‘This means that women will not be able to give birth at either site for the next three months. However, all antenatal and postnatal clinics, midwifery support and home birth services are unaffected and running as normal.

‘For anyone requiring in-patient maternity care, we will make immediate arrangements for them to attend our main maternity unit in Exeter or Tiverton Birth Centre, so that mother and baby continue to receive the highest standard of care.

‘We are sorry for the inconvenience this temporary shortage of in-patient maternity services at Honiton and Okehampton may cause and we are working to resolve it as soon as possible.

‘This decision is one taken for purely operational reasons and has no connection with proposals outlined in the Devon-wide Acute Services Review.’

The news came as a shock to Central Devon MP Mel Stride, who said he was ‘greatly concerned and surprised’ to learn of the unit closure, having only held a meeting at the hospital with representatives of the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust and the Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commission-ing Group (CCG) the week before, where there was no mention of the risk of a temporary closure.

Mr Stride said: ‘I will be pressing the trust hard to establish when this service will be re-opened. We should be seeing the hospital moving towards becoming a successful Health and Wellbeing hub and I am concerned that this temporary closure does not delay this in any way.’

Despite the CCG announcing in January that Okehampton Hospital would be retained as a health and well-being centre and that local stakeholders will be able to have their say on the kind of services that are available, six months later no consultation has commenced.

The CCG is also yet to set a date for when the 16 in-patient beds at Okehampton Hospital will officially close.

A spokesperson for the CCG said: ‘Whilst steps are underway to implement the decision made by the CCG in March this year, including discussions with staff, the actual date for closure of the in-patient beds at Okehampton Hospital has not yet been finalised.

‘The CCG and Royal?Devon and Exeter are continuing to work together on the preparations for this, to ensure the move to provide more care and support in people’s homes is done in a safe and timely manner. We will also be engaging in wider planning with the community for future health, wellbeing and care in the community.’