Queen’s Hospital in Romford limits number of births

Pregnant women living in Essex will not be sent to Queen’s Hospital, under new plans to limit the number of births at the centre.

Expectant mothers are instead being urged to give birth at Basildon and Broomfield Hospitals as part of a new capping system which came into effect last month.

Women planning on giving birth by caesarean will also be sent to Homerton Hospital in Hackney until mid-December.

Under the new system, Queen’s Hospital in Romford will have a limit of 15 births and King Georges in Goodmayes a limit of five, before staff will arrange for women to deliver at neighbouring hospitals.

Barking, Havering and Redbridge Trust director of nursing Deborah Wheeler added that women arriving in advanced stages of labour would not be turned away.

She said: “This will protect safe capacity for women who arrive needing urgent care, as there are enough rooms and midwives to provide one-to-one care for 20 births at Queen’s Hospital and seven at King George Hospital.

“On most days the number of births at either site remains within these numbers and women have been diverted to deliver at other hospitals on only a handful of occasions.

“These changes simply aim to ensure that our labour wards can give women the care and space they need.”

It is hoped the new system will ensure one-to-one care for pregnant women at the hospital in Rom Valley Way.

However, Med Buck, chairman of health and social services community group Havering LINk, argued some women will struggle to travel to hospitals out of the borough, such as Homerton.

He added: “This is a temporary solution for BHR Trust but we also don’t know the pressure it will put on other hospitals.”