Permanent closure of Staffordshire birthing units

NHS bosses have approved the permanent closure of two Staffordshire birthing units.

The freestanding midwife-led units at County Hospital in Stafford and Samuel Johnson Community Hospital in Lichfield have been temporarily suspended since the Covid-19 pandemic, and plans to reopen them since had to be scrapped due to 'workforce challenges'.

Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB) has now approved the decision to permanently close the units.

Board members were told that this would be safer for mums and babies, and more sustainable.