Trust seeks public consultation on future of maternity services

The Northern Health Trust is seeking to hold a public consultation on the future of maternity services in the area.

Maternity services are currently provided from the trust’s two acute hospitals, Antrim Area and Causeway, but concerns have been raised over the sustainability of services at the Causeway facility in Coleraine, where the number of births is lower.

The trust wants to explore two alternative options.

The first involves moving all consultant-led births to Antrim with a freestanding midwifery-led unit in Causeway.

The second option involves moving all births to Antrim.

The trust has confirmed it will seek approval at a board meeting on Thursday to open a public consultation on options for the future of services.

A spokesman said: “The current configuration of maternity services in the Northern Trust is a fragile and vulnerable service model that is unsustainable.

“Available consultant obstetrics and midwifery resources are spread too thinly across the Antrim and Causeway sites and we are seeing a year-on-year decrease in birth numbers in the Causeway Coast and Glens area.

“We urgently need to provide a model for maternity services that addresses current challenges, including issues to do with staffing and recruitment and neonatal care.

“There are clinically deliverable options for providing a more sustainable and safe model and we have always stressed that we would try to make no permanent changes without full public consultation.

“That remains our preference and we plan to seek approval from Trust board to immediately commence a 14-week public consultation process.

“Our aim will be to ensure that people fully understand the need for change, the various options and their implications, and that they have a real and meaningful chance to fully explore those options and have their say.”

The Department of Health said it was being kept fully informed on “the fragility of the current configuration of services”.

A spokesman said: “The department fully understands the sensitivities and anxieties of individuals and communities that potential changes to services can create, and therefore requires trusts to carry out extensive consultation prior to any planned change.

“Recommendations and proposals from the consultation will come to the department for assessment.

“Central criteria in this assessment will be how best to provide safe and sustainable care that meets the needs of the community.

“Any permanent changes to services will require ministerial/departmental approval.”

The Northern Trust aims to have a new-build £150m Women and Children’s Unit on the Antrim Hospital site for maternity and paediatric services.

Subject to business case approval and funding availability, the trust hopes that this facility could be commissioned for service in 2027/28.