Earlier this year, and as the challenges of Covid-19 became apparent, health professionals at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals (DBTH) made the difficult decision to transfer the majority of maternity services to Doncaster Royal Infirmary (DRI). The Trust now anticipates related inpatient services to be restored at Bassetlaw Hospital from 2 November 2020.
This action was taken to ensure that the Trust’s maternity services had the appropriate staffing and resources available to ensure that both mum and baby had the safest and best possible birthing experience. The move also freed up essential staff, such as anaesthetists, to support critically ill patients treated at Bassetlaw Hospital.
While the number of patients receiving care for Covid-19 has significantly increased in the past few weeks, colleagues at the Trust believe they are now in a better position to manage maternity services across two sites. This position has also been helped by a recent recruitment campaign for newly qualified midwives.
David Purdue, Director of Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals and Deputy Chief Executive, said: “Since 30 March 2020, Bassetlaw Hospital’s inpatient maternity and midwifery services have been provided at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital on the Doncaster Royal Infirmary site. We took these necessary steps, with the support of NHS Bassetlaw Clinical Commissioning Group, to ensure that we could continue to offer a safe and effective service for our community, whilst we worked hard to create extra provision and contingencies to ensure we had the appropriate cover in case any of our midwives and related colleagues were affected by Covid-19.
“We will carefully watch admissions throughout the rest of October, however, at present, we don’t expect to change these plans unless our circumstances change significantly.”