Maternity unit closes for months

Mothers-to-be will have to travel to Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton

A maternity unit is to close for up to six months because too many of its staff are having babies of their own.

Hospital bosses say 16% of midwives at the Mary Stanley Unit at Bridgwater are on maternity or long-term sick leave.

They say the staff shortages mean maternity services in the town are no longer clinically safe.

The remaining nurses and midwives will be redeployed to Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital until the unit reopens in three to six months' time.

Taunton and Somerset NHS Trust said the unit would close on 24 March, but that action was being taken to address the staffing problems, including recruiting new workers.

Liz Redfern, the trust's deputy chief executive, said: "We would like to apologise to those women who will be inconvenienced by having to travel to Taunton rather than give birth at Bridgwater.

"This is a decision we have taken to ensure their safety and to protect the services we provide to pregnant women."