CAMPAIGNERS have hit out after mums were sent miles out of their way when a maternity unit was forced to close.
In total, 13 women due to give birth at Colchester General Hospital, which takes women from across north Essex, had to be transferred to other units across the region, with some sent 60 miles away to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.
It was only the third time in the past 30 years the Colchester maternity unit has had to close.
A consultant obstetrician decided to shut the unit to new admissions in the early hours of Sunday morning as staff could not predict if any of the new babies would need the specialist care.
It remained closed for 36 hours. Expectant mothers were sent to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, the West Suffolk Hospital, in Bury St Edmunds, the Rosie Hospital, in Cambridge, Ipswich or Bedford hospitals, which had neo-natal unit capacity.
Harwich maternity campaigner Jenny Semple said: “I can’t believe it. Sending people to the Norfolk and Norwich–it is astounding, quite frankly.”
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