Southend Councillors Oppose Proposed Neonatal Unit Downgrade

Local officials have voiced objections regarding proposals to “downgrade” a unit for premature infants. The people scrutiny committee of Southend-on-Sea City Council declined to support a proposal to reclassify Southend Hospital’s level two neonatal unit to a level one special care baby unit. Presently, the unit is equipped to provide care for infants born from 27 weeks gestation; however, the proposed reclassification would limit care to babies from 32 weeks. The Mid and South Essex NHS Trust, responsible for operating the three hospitals in the region, suggests that extremely premature babies would instead be transferred to its facilities in Basildon and Broomfield. Kathy Murphy, a non-aligned councillor representing St Luke’s Ward, expressed concerns at the council meeting on Tuesday, stating her apprehension that this represented a “gradual piecemeal approach to downgrading the hospital,” as reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service. She posed the question, “If this goes ahead, what’s going to happen to paediatric services?” adding, “Are we going to see that consultants are now going to be at Basildon and Broomfield because that’s where the higher level is?” She further inquired, “Are our paediatric services then going to be downgraded? That’s going to impact on our emergency department services and then that’s going to be downgraded.” Labour councillor Lydia Hyde, though not a committee member, requested and was granted permission to speak, and she criticized the trust for being “disconnected” from the community, asserting it was spending time “bolstering excuses without fair engagement on the concerns.” Tony Cox, who leads the Reform Group, stated at the meeting his conviction that it constituted “a downgrade.” He remarked, “They’re not trying to window dress this,” continuing, “There’s a problem so let’s downgrade it. This is a retrograde step. It does make Southend go backwards.” Since 2023, the unit has been functioning “temporarily” as a special care baby unit, following the emergence of safety concerns regarding its operations. The proposed new designation is scheduled for implementation in February. During the meeting, Nicki Abbott, interim managing director for the women’s and children’s division at the trust, indicated that there was surplus capacity and that specialized staff could be utilized to strengthen paediatric services. She stated, “Since we implemented this in January 2023 there have been eight babies that have been transferred to another site.” She added, “The current unit would not be fit for purpose to be a level two unit. It would need £1.6m of capital investment.” It presently fails to meet infection prevention and control standards because of the close proximity of the cots. “We mitigate this on a daily basis due to the lower volume of babies that we have in the unit,” she explained. For updates on Essex news, follow BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram, and X. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC bears no responsibility for the content found on external sites. Information regarding our approach to external linking is available.