Maternity services at the Whittington Hospital are under threat as part of a review by the NHS body in this area, the North Central London Integrated Care Board. We have until March 17 to give our opinions on the suggestions. We believe that keeping the Whittington Maternity unit open and investing in it has the least bad impact on health inequality, although we would prefer to see investment in both the Whittington and the Royal Free.

You can reply in a number of ways:

Fill in the consultation online here: Start Well consultation

Send an email to: StartWellConsultation@ors.org.uk

Or send a letter to Opinion Research Services, FREEPOST SS1018, PO Box 530, Swansea, SA1 1ZL. You can also phone: 0800 324 7005.

We have put together the suggested response (in orange below) that you can use as the basis for either an email or a letter. You might like to tailor it to make it your own.

Your name and address

Date

North Central London Integrated Care Board, Public Consultation on the reconfiguration of maternity, neonatal and child surgical services in NCL

Dear NHS planners,

Response to consultation

I was shocked to find that you were undertaking a public consultation on cutting one of the five obstetric-led maternity units in our area, with either the Whittington or the Royal Free due for the chop.

The health service regulator, the Care Quality Commission, has said recently that 70% of the nation’s maternity units are below an acceptable standard. One of the problems is the fact that there are not enough midwives, as their terms and conditions are causing many to leave the profession. I assume this cut is about trying to make the best of a bad job by forcing midwives in the unit that is being closed to move to one of the other four. And I assume that a decade’s under-investment in facilities has forced you to spend the promised £40m to improve things.

You say that the birth-rate is falling but, unless you assume that the current cost of living crisis is permanent, we may well find babies whose arrival has been delayed will start to be born in greater numbers and then we will not have enough space in our maternity units.

I protest about the under-funding of the NHS and the appalling staffing policies that have left us in this mess, but you demand that we make our choice between these two units.

It is with a heavy heart that I respond to your actual questions by favouring the options that keep the Whittington Maternity Services open. I believe this is the option that has the least bad impact on health inequalities. Please pass on my apologies for this choice to the mothers who would have used the Royal Free.

Find out more about the plan for maternity units.