Pregnant women face bus ride (From Barry And District News)

Pregnant women face bus ride

A FUNDRAISING group for Llandough maternity unit has hit out at proposals to scale down the department and put midwives in charge of all deliveries at the hospital.

While the Cardiff and Vale NHS has yet to take formal decision it is believed plans to scale down the site are at an advanced stage.

Katrin Backer, of Special Care Infant Parent Support (SCIPS), said: "If these plans go ahead women throughout the Vale with high-risk pregnancies will have to travel to Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales (UHW). It is completely unreasonable to expect women expecting twins for example to travel for an hour on public transport to get maternity services.

"Women with higher risk pregnancies are most in need of maternity services in the close proximity.

"It is also likely that these proposals, when announced, will mean the end of antenatal support at Llandough."

Mrs Janet Evans, Clinical Director of Women's Service at Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust, said: "Nothing has yet been finally decided. Over the past year we have done an enormous amount of work to develop possible options for women's services, including sexual health, maternity and gynaecology services, provided by this Trust. We are nearing completion of this work to present proposals to the Trust Board on May 27.

"We have said that we need to find a way to provide women and babies with a safe and sustainable service, which meets their requirements. But more discussion and consultation with the public will be needed before any final decision is reached."

At present a total of 6,000 babies are delivered between Llandough and University Hospital Wales.

It is understood that under the new plan the UHW maternity will deal with both low and high-risk pregnancies with specialist doctors on hand to deal with any problems.