Protesters march to protect Liverpool Women’s Hospital

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PROTESTERS took to the streets today to fight plans to move services out of Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

NHS Cheshire & Merseyside has put forward proposals to move some high-risk births and complex gynaecology operations to the Royal Liverpool Hospital.

But campaigners fear that the changes could be the first step towards moving services entirely out of the largest women’s hospital in Europe.

Lesley Mahmood from Save Liverpool Women’s Hospital said that the Royal is already completely overcrowded, with people in beds in corridors.

Currently the hospital provides level-2 intensive care, while patients requiring level 3 are transferred between the two hospitals, located 1.3 miles apart.

Demonstrators marched to the Labour Party’s annual conference at Albert Dock.

Last year, the government launched an investigation into Britain’s maternity services with poor and unsafe care leading to deaths, life-altering conditions and more than £27 billion in negligence claims.

Speaking at the protest, Chantelle Lunt, from the Merseyside Alliance for Racial Equality, highlighted stark inequalities facing black mothers, who are three times more likely to die in childbirth.

“One way you don’t respond to health inequalities is by removing a service that is in the heart of one of the most diverse communities in the UK for more than 10 generations,” she said.

Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne emphasised that women across Liverpool “deserve a fully funded, fully staffed and properly resourced women’s hospital on its existing Crown Street site.”

NHS Cheshire & Merseyside said the proposed change is “because it’s much safer to treat these very complex cases at an acute hospital, where other specialist surgeons and intensive care teams are all immediately on hand.”

The care board added that a public consultation was held over the summer but that no decisions have been made.

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