Decision on Ipswich maternity bid due within weeks, minister confirms

Why it matters: Health Minister Karin Smyth has confirmed a decision is coming on Ipswich Hospital's £98m bid to replace its maternity tower, after Ipswich MP Jack Abbott raised the "not fit for purpose" building in Parliament this week. This followed Ipswich.co.uk's reporting on concerns raised by midwives about the maternity block.

The big picture: East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) has made an "expression of interest" to NHS England's Estates Safety Fund for national funding to build a new maternity and neonatal centre at Ipswich Hospital, replacing the tower block that has stood since 1970.

• The tower was completed in 1969 and opened in 1970.
• It received a facelift and repairs in 2019.

What they're saying: Jack Abbott, the Labour MP for Ipswich, pressed the case in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

"Our local services support the delivery of around about 3,000 babies every single year, but this building has been not fit for purpose for many, many years," he said. "So will the Secretary of State support our bid for a new maternity wing at Ipswich Hospital to make sure that babies and families get the state-of-the-art services that they so desperately need?"

Smyth replied: "We're investing unprecedented amounts in capital, giving greater certainty, and very happy to meet with him to discuss the proposal from Ipswich." She said she would meet Abbott to discuss it further.

For context: The Care Quality Commission found maternity services "required improvement" in a 2021 inspection, after obstetric theatres were found to be on a different floor to the delivery suite – a layout ESNEFT says it is "not aware of any other maternity service in England" sharing.

Ipswich.co.uk has spent the past month investigating conditions inside the maternity tower. Our reporting found:

• Midwives said it can take up to 13 minutes to carry a woman requiring an emergency C-section to theatre when the block's lifts fail; on the weekend of 2 October, the block was reduced to a single working lift – triggering the trust's own "red status" threshold – yet an additional list of caesareans went ahead regardless.
• An operative delivery room on the labour ward floor lost power twice this year during obstetric emergencies; one midwife said the backup offered was a medical-grade head torch.
• The trust has confirmed the tower contains asbestos, limiting how rooms in maternity services can be reconfigured.

Midwives warn Ipswich maternity block 'not fit for purpose' as NHS mulls £98m replacement

In 2021, inspectors found that Ipswich Hospital's maternity tower failed national design standards and that maternity services "required improvement". Five years on, midwives say almost nothing has changed, and a £98m plan to replace the building rests on a decision due within days.

Ipswich.co.ukOliver Rouane-Williams

What's next: NHS England's decision on the £98m bid is expected by the end of October. Ipswich.co.uk will report the outcome, and the response to it, when it arrives.

The bottom line: With the funding decision now days away and the issue raised directly with ministers, Ipswich will soon learn whether its maternity tower – a building inspectors flagged five years ago and midwives still call unfit for purpose – is finally going to be replaced.

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