THE familiar story of regular closures at the Midwife led maternity unit in Ludlow has been repeated.

It closed last Saturday and is not scheduled to reopen until the end of March.

Services at Ludlow were suspended from on Saturday.

The unit will remain open between 8am and 8pm for antenatal and postnatal services but will not be able to accept inpatients.

“As we have said previously, despite a successful recruitment campaign which allowed us to reopen for births at the start of the year, our service continues to see mums choosing the Consultant-led unit over these units, or being assessed as needing a Consultant-led birth because of medical need,” said Sarah Jamison, Head of Midwifery at the Shropshire and Telford Health Trust.

But Tracey Huffer and nurse and Shropshire Councillor for Ludlow East is not impressed and says it is an unacceptable way to treat women..

“I have completely lost track of how often we have heard that Ludlow Maternity Unit is to close because of staff shortages,” she said.

A few days later, it reopens. And not long after that, the health trust, announces the maternity unit is to close yet again due to yet more staff shortages.”