The Royal Free in Hampstead

NHS chiefs have defied more than 50 top consultants and specialist midwives at the Royal Free by announcing they will halt all births at the hospital.

Hampstead and Highgate MP Tulip Siddiq said last night (Wednesday) she was “dismayed” by the decision to cut the maternity unit, where thousands of people reading this paper right now were born.

The final decision will be taken on Tuesday when the North Central London Integrated Care Board (ICB) meet to rubber stamp the ­closure plans.

The managers argue plunging birthrates in north London had forced their hand into “difficult decisions” and that scarce NHS funding would be better spent upgrading units at ­Barnet, North Middlesex, University College London and Whittington hospitals.

The New Journal reported last February on a leaked joint letter from experts in the field that raised “significant concerns” about a plan that was “sidelining the welfare of women” and “putting lives at risk”.

The letter said: “The only clinically justified and safe option is to keep the Royal Free maternity unit open, expand it and upgrade the neo-natal unit on site.”

Ms Siddiq, who had an emergency caesarean procedure at the hospital for the birth of her first child, said that the “most marginalised parents in my constituency” would be disadvantaged.

She said:“I know from my own experience that the hospital helps mothers with gestational diabetes. “I have also heard directly from doctors on the maternity unit that the hospital is uniquely placed to help pregnant women who have HIV and those who require interventional radiology.

“I fear that this decision could widen existing health inequalities in my constituency and put women’s lives at risk.” The Royal College of Midwives, which has been holding protests in Pond Street over the plan, described the proposal as “madness”.

The ICB – a board of unelected officials – launched the plan in December 2023, arguing that either the Whittington or the Royal Free maternity unit would close.

In a contest between the two, the writing had been on the wall for the Royal Free’s unit, however, since it had been rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission in 2021, following the death of a pregnant woman. In its 250-page impact assessment, the ICB said expectant parents’ journey times would increase and each taxi fare to a baby unit would cost on average £5.50 more.

Women from minority ethnic backgrounds singled out in a report include Somali people in Kilburn, Bangladeshi people in Chalk Farm and the Orthodox Jewish community for whom the Royal Free is the “service of choice” due to its specialist services.

The ICB said that births at the Royal Free maternity unit have decreased by 12 per cent every year since 2018. Historic schools in Camden – including two close to the Royal Free, Carlton and St Dominics in Gospel Oak – have shut in recent years due to declining birthrates.

The shortage of social housing and genuinely affordable homes has been forcing first-time parents to leave London for years.

The ICB’s Dr Josephine Sauvage, head of the “Start Well” programme, said: “These are difficult decisions. We know how hard staff work to provide services which are highly valued. However, the current arrangements cannot continue as they are. “We have a declining birth rate in our area, and the need for more complex support for mothers, pregnant people and their babies is growing.

“Our services are not currently set up to meet the needs of everyone that uses them. Doing nothing is not an option and we have carried out extensive work to make sure we are able to make the right decision for local families.”

Peter Landstrom, group chief executive of the Royal Free London, added: “These are difficult decisions, and we know that there will be uncertainty felt by the public and staff who would be impacted by the future closure of the unit at the Royal Free Hospital, and the birthing suites at Edgware Birth Centre.”

He added: “For now, and the immediate future, all our services are open, unchanged and will be for some time, as changes such as this rightly take several years to put in place.” There were more than 3,000 responses to a 14-week “consultation” last year.