This meeting has been called to discuss the impact on our maternity services of the continued closure of the midwife-led birthing unit at South Tyneside Hospital, which has been closed since January 9th 2022. The reasons given are: staffing issues, sickness and covid. The chief-executive said that the birthing unit cannot open until it is safe to do so.

SSTHC is holding this public meeting as we are concerned that the people of South Tyneside were told that by downgrading their full maternity service in 2018 from a full service to a midwife-led birthing unit, that these services would now be safe and sustainable. This was part of the Path to Excellence programme, and during the consultation SSTHC had pointed out and predicted that downgrading our full maternity service at South Tyneside District Hospital would lead to less safe and less sustainable maternity services for the people of South Tyneside.