Woman says 40-mile journey to hospital while having contractions was 'scary' — SkimNews
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- Southern Health Trust will temporarily consolidate inpatient maternity care at Craigavon from 23 November, saying it cannot recruit enough consultant obstetricians to safely staff both hospitals; the trust has five vacant obstetrician posts, and mother Seanan Martin said the workforce challenges should have been planned for years in advance.
- Steve Spoerry, the trust's chief executive, told Stormont's Health Committee that keeping women and babies safe is its highest priority and that it lacks the consultants for daytime and out-of-hours rotas at both maternity units, making the transfer "highly probable" from next month; the trust employs 15 consultant obstetricians, but sickness, reduced working arrangements and maternity leave mean not all are available for the on-call rota.
- Natasha Daryaie was rushed 40 miles while in premature labour after Daisy Hill midwives were told Craigavon had no room; a Daisy Hill midwife travelled with her to the Ulster Hospital, where she spent four nights before being stabilised and sent home, and her son Odin was later born at Daisy Hill at full term.
- Craigavon Area Hospital has been asked how it will manage approximately 1,400 additional births each year if care moves from Daisy Hill, with births at Daisy Hill increasing between 2019 and 2025 while births at Craigavon fell.
- Dale Spence, director of the Royal College of Midwives in Northern Ireland, said more midwives are required and those working feel overburdened, warning Northern Ireland should not rely on midwives' goodwill to keep services afloat; full-time midwife numbers at both acute units have fallen since October 2019, with vacancies equal to 0.61 posts at Daisy Hill and 11.69 at Craigavon and 16 newly appointed midwives due between November 2026 and January 2027.
- Mark Annett, whose third child was born last Thursday, lives in Kilkeel, County Down, where the journey to Daisy Hill takes about 35 minutes and Craigavon would add another hour; he said his wife's second birth ran from her waters breaking to the baby's birth in minutes and was followed by an obstetric bleed.
- Daisy Hill's overall birth numbers have declined over the past two years after a trust risk-stratification procedure — introduced following the withdrawal of emergency general surgery from the hospital in 2024 — meant fewer women were considered suitable for elective Caesarean sections there.
Why it matters: From 23 November, Newry mothers lose their local inpatient maternity unit while Craigavon is asked to absorb roughly 1,400 extra births a year, with five consultant obstetrician posts unfilled and midwife numbers down since October 2019. For rural households like the Annetts in Kilkeel, the consolidation adds an hour to labour-time journeys.
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