Patients to be moved after hospital's Raac fears

One social media user says it is not "dignified" to be moved across a car park straight after birth

New mothers have been told they face being moved across a road after birth due to fears over crumbling concrete.

Kettering General Hospital (KGH) said it needed to move its postnatal maternity beds to protect the safety of patients and their babies.

It followed reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) being found in the roof of the Rockingham Wing at the Northamptonshire facility.

Mara Tonks, the hospital's director of midwifery, said while it was "not ideal at all" to move patients to the Sir Thomas Moore Ward, the action was necessary.

The temporary ward is located in a car park opposite the 47-year-old Rockingham Wing and was brought in during the Covid pandemic.

It would provide a "better and brighter environment" for patients, the hospital said.

Officials added that antenatal patients would continue to be looked after in the Willow Ward while the works, expected to last until late November, were under way.

The hospital says the safety and experience of its patients and their babies are "of paramount importance"

Responding to the news on the hospital's social media page, one user said she would not feel "dignified being dragged [through] the car park" with a baby.

"Both of my births were caesarean section and was so uncomfortable for the first few days to just sit down, let alone being bumped across the road," she added.

Ms Tonks addressed concerns raised online and said any transfer would be "as comfortable as possible".

"Moving these beds will enable us to complete propping up parts of the Rockingham Wing roof, which contains Raac, and improve the environment of the building before reopening our maternity ward there later in the year," a KGH statement added.

"The safety and experience of our patients and their babies are of paramount importance to us."

The hospital was rated as "requires improvement" in a report published in May

Raac was widely used in the construction of public buildings from the 1950s to the 1990s, but its lifespan has largely expired - leading to many schools and other buildings across the UK being forced to close in recent times.

KGH said in February that surveyors had "found a number of individual Raac panels which are in a critical condition" in the roof of the wing.