Health bosses have bizarre change of heart of maternity services at Milton Keynes hospital

Health bosses have been forced into a humiliating climbdown, after plans to move maternity services from Bedford to Milton Keynes were scrapped after just TWO days.
By The Newsroom
Published 16th Jun 2016, 10:42 BST
Updated 16th Jun 2016, 11:42 BST
JPNS-12-05-15-022 Newborn Baby Pouch Plush Undated Handout Photo of the Little Green Sheep Organic, available from thelittlegreensheep.co.uk. See PA Feature FAMILY Play. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/Handout. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature FAMILY Play PPP-151105-144516001JPNS-12-05-15-022 Newborn Baby Pouch Plush Undated Handout Photo of the Little Green Sheep Organic, available from thelittlegreensheep.co.uk. See PA Feature FAMILY Play. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/Handout. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature FAMILY Play PPP-151105-144516001
JPNS-12-05-15-022 Newborn Baby Pouch Plush Undated Handout Photo of the Little Green Sheep Organic, available from thelittlegreensheep.co.uk. See PA Feature FAMILY Play. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/Handout. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature FAMILY Play PPP-151105-144516001

The Bedford and Milton Keynes Healthcare Review team made the maternity announcement on Wednesday, following more than two years of work and £4.5million spent on the study. But they were forced to climbdown on Friday afternoon, claiming that they could not make big political announcements because of the forthcoming European referendum.

Health campaigners in Bedford welcomed the news, but in Milton Keynes the reaction was more ambiguous.

One Milton Keynes insider said: “It’s all very unsettling.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad
Most Popular

“This review has been going on for years, then there was an announcement from nowhere, then it was all rescinded.I don’t know what to think.”

The Healthcare Review is the most recent in a series of projects which have proposed twinning the futures of Bedford and Milton Keynes hospitals.

These include Healthier Together, which aimed to combine five different hospitals and was scrapped in 2013 after costing £2.2million, and plans to merge both hospitals into a single trust which were scrapped the same year.

And yet another study –the Sustainability and Transformation Plan – has been launched by the government, and is expected to replacethe Healthcare Review.

> Full story at miltonkeynes.co.uk

Related topics:Milton KeynesBedford