Now you can’t help where you were born. Or can you?? Although I have lived in Bridgwater for most of my life a little piece of paper tells me I was born in the fair city of Leeds. But in this town it’s about 50:50 whether you were born here or you weren’t.
For many years Bridgwater people have had that choice. For instance, I’m writing now from the old Mary Stanley Maternity Hospital, which today is flats, but which was once the birthplace of many Bridgwater people. In 1988 I was part of a campaign to save this building from closure and the result was that in 1989 not only did we win a small victory to save delivery facilities in Bridgwater – in the new Mary Stanley Wing at the old Salmon Parade Hospital – but my own daughter was born there that year.
Town Council launches ‘Born in Bridgwater’ Campaign
When Bridgwater Hospital was closed we urged the maintenance of a delivery facility at the new hospital – again called the Mary Stanley Suite, after the 19th century dignitary.
At last months Bridgwater Town Council meeting, following concerns from users constantly being sent to Musgrove and a visit there by Mayor Alex Glassford (Fairfax) and Deputy Leader Kath Pearce (Westover) we decided to launch a ‘Born in Bridgwater’ campaign, to raise awareness of the options that the delivery suite presented so that people know they have the opportunity to have their children born in their town. A kind of ‘use it or lose it’ warning.
Mother of two Cllr Siobhan Wilson (Victoria) speaking at the meeting said “I would say that I think it is a shame if no babies are being born in Bridgwater now, particularly since there is a lovely new hospital in Bridgwater and a maternity unit waiting there. If this is because of staff/funding issues then we should try to help resolve these issues so that lots of new babies can be born in Bridgwater. The new hospital is a valuable resource and I am sure many women, in the town and surrounding villages, would like to use it, rather than being sent to Taunton. Whilst it isn’t a ward with midwives on all the time if you book to give birth there then they open it for you when you’re in labour. “
A New Front opens
Now the Bridgwater Trades Union Council has launched another campaign against the NHS STP project which they believe could further set back maternity facilities in the town and have called for a public meeting to raise awareness.
A statement reads “20 years ago the people of Bridgwater fought a hard battle to keep an NHS maternity unit in the town. Will this battle have to be fought all over again?
NHS Somerset’s “Sustainability and Transformation Plan”(STP) – a semi-secret document for months – is now being forced through by the end of 2017 without any real consultation, let alone negotiation, with NHS staff, their trade unions and the wider public.
The government says that the 44 STP plans will deliver “financial balance and stability” in the form of £5 billion worth of “efficiency savings.” Are these weasel words for yet more savage cuts to services? Four community hospitals in South Devon, including Paignton, a town the size of Bridgwater, are already losing their hospitals.
The main fear of Bridgwater Trades Union Council delegates, and other local NHS campaigners, is that this STP will close our Bridgwater Hospital NHS maternity unit. Somerset’s STP is remarkably vague on local maternity details, NHS websites only state that there are no plans to close maternity units at Taunton and Yeovil, our Bridgwater unit is not even mentioned!”
STP or GO?
Dave Chapple, Bridgwater TUC Secretary, said: “In February this year, citing staff shortages among other reasons, NHS bosses cut the opening hours at Bridgwater Hospital’s Minor Injuries Unit, despite being fully aware of our giant construction site at Hinkley Point, and the pressure that shorter Bridgwater hours would have on the accident and emergency wards at Musgrove Park. All over the country, towns and cities larger than Bridgwater are losing their NHS maternity units. If we are not to join them, and NHS Somerset cannot confirm our local maternity unit will stay, the whole town must be prepared to protest, as we did for the Mary Stanley twenty years ago!”
Taking up the Challenge
Leader of the Labour Group on Somerset County Council, Leigh Redman (Bridgwater South) said “There is no doubt that the STP process will mean the NHS will suffer, and by default will mean jobs and service will suffer. I think it is simple ‘put the necessary resources in place that are needed to fund our NHS’, Bridgwater community hospital needs to be a community hospital, FUND IT APPROPRIATELY…”
Public Meeting
Bridgwater Trades Union Council is holding an emergency meeting for NHS workers, trades unionists, and all those who use and depend upon NHS services, on Tuesday April 11th.
Speakers will tell us what they think of the Somerset STP plans as a whole, covering not just maternity but acute, mental health, and social care, and how best the public can respond.
Details of the meeting are as follows: Railway Club, Wellington Road, Bridgwater Tuesday 11th April 7.30.
I was born here 1964 ive a photo the same as on your site with matron. The reason i was photographed was because o had a full head of black hair and named the beetle baby, betles hair cut apparently.
It always annoyed me that my own children could not be born in Bridgwater. My daughter was born in 1991and first time mums were not allowed to book into Mary Stanley. I couldn’t wait to get to the Mary Stanley wing to recover and care for my new but slightly poorly daughter. Several years later my son was booked into be born at Bridgwater, but i went into labour in Musgrove a and had to stay! I was told Mary Stanley unit was held on a charity trust and all Bridgwater mums had the right to spend time recovering there. So presumably the current unit was paid for out of those funds? If that is true (&i haven’t checked) they can’t just close it without consulting us. Bridgwater is a fantastic place and it is unacceptable that we face no one being able to claim that distinction of born in Bridgwater and proud of it.