£1.6m New Cross Hospital maternity unit set to re-open

The unit at Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital was controversially closed last month because of a lack of staff.

Bosses said patient safety was 'paramount' in their decision to close the unit while new recruits were hired.

It had only been open for 11 months at the time, but chiefs at New Cross have now declared it safe to re-open next Monday after 16 qualified midwives were taken on.

Since it closed mothers-to-be wanting to give birth at the state-of-the art unit at the Wednesfield site have instead been using the hospital's older delivery suite or having home births.

Debra Hickman, head of midwifery at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, said: "The midwifery-led unit at New Cross Hospital will re-open at the start of next week and will support our midwifery services in a flexible manner, as it always has in the past."

Previously a pool of 122 midwives were split between departments on a day-to-day basis, but an increase in high-risk births had taken staff away from the modern unit. The midwife-led unit boasts extra facilities to the delivery suite, with all five birthing rooms having en-suite bathrooms, music centres and televisions and the latest state-of-the-art birthing equipment.

When it closed last month a charity for expectant mothers – the National Childbirth Trust – expressed concerns that the closure could disrupt pregnancies.