Hundreds protest closure of maternity unit
BBCMore than 200 people gathered outside a hospital to protest against the temporary closure of its birthing and special baby care unit.
The closure of two units at Yeovil District Hospital, in Somerset, comes after it was served a warning notice by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for failing to meet staffing regulations in its paediatric service.
Among the protesters were parents who have either had children at the unit or are expecting to.
Alice Atkins, whose daughter was born at the hospital four days ago, said "our outcome could have been very different" had she been to her next closest hospital 50 minutes away in Bath.
Peter Lewis, chief executive for Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, said: "The Care Quality Commission raised concerns that we have been trying to resolve, but some of those we haven't been able to resolve.
"In the last week we have had sickness amongst our senior doctors in our paediatric service which has made it very fragile."
He said the trust cannot run the maternity service without the special care baby unit.
Some Yeovil maternity staff will remain there to carry out antenatal appointments and screenings while others may relocate to Taunton's Musgrove Park, Bath or Dorchester hospitals during the closure period.
At the protesters with her husband Josh, Mrs Atkins said their daughter Dotty was "born within five minutes" of arriving at the hospital.
"We planned to have a home birth but unfortunately things started to go wrong, so we were blue-lighted to here in Yeovil."
Megan and Kyle Williams told the BBC their baby arrived seven-and-a-half weeks early last year, and needed an emergency caesarean.
Mr Williams said for them, the closest service is an hour away.
"What about in peak traffic? What if it all goes wrong and you have an hour, possibly more, stuck in traffic?" he said.
Adam Dance, Yeovil MP, said: "It's absolutely amazing to have this many people turn up and hearing the stories.
"I got into politics to fight for people and make our community better. This is not making our community better.
"The leadership need to really wake up. The time is a huge important factor.
"Trying to send people to Musgrove is going to be an absolute disaster. We need to get this unit open as soon as we can."
Mr Lewis added: "There are clearly challenges with getting the right people in place and the right capacity in place so it's difficult to absolutely guarantee six months to the day, but that's what we're working on."
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