Births at Alexandra Hospital in Redditch moved due to staff shortages

All births will be moved from the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch from 12:00 GMT on Thursday

Neonatal services are being moved from a Worcestershire hospital due to staff shortages.

All births will be transferred from Alexandra Hospital in Redditch to Worcestershire Royal Hospital from 12:00 GMT on Thursday.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals trust said the decision was not "taken lightly" and it would look to review the situation in February.

The Save the Alex campaign said women and unborn babies would be "at risk".

The trust said despite an extensive recruitment campaign, employing experienced agency staff and asking neighbouring hospitals for help, the situation had "become critical".

It said it was "unable to safely cover" all of its neonatal rotas, especially at weekends.

The trust's interim chief nursing officer, Mari Gay, said: "We will only reopen the service when we are confident that we have all of the senior qualified staff in place to consistently cover all of the rotas and to ensure the quality of care needed for the sickest of children which need one to one care."

The Save the Alex campaign said it was a "disgraceful decision".

A spokesman said the move would further stretch staff and put women and babies at risk.

The campaign claimed Worcestershire Royal "did not have the capacity to take all the additional births" and "it would now need the space on its neonatal unit to cope with additional demand".