This is just another step in the Bay Trust plot to bring about the closure of the Barrow Maternity Unit. First tarnish their reputation, then blame the resulting recruitment problems for the next wave of inefficiencies, then eventually say the Unit will close because it is not fit for purpose.

It will be disastrous moving SCBU to Maternity for both maternity and neonatal staff who are trained in two different specialities one designed to care for 'well' babies and their mothers and another to support the needs of small or sick babies. It is inconceivable that the staff from each area will be required to 'support' colleagues if there are staffing issues! That is NOT to say that each is not confident and competent in their area of expertise but I would not want a neonatal nurse to deliver my baby or a midwife to care for my sick baby. Having watched from afar it seems to me that this is about money and downgrading the unit and as I have seen in my own area this could be a reality! The midwives and neonatal nurses at FGH have been ground down, disrespected and only just managing to keep afloat. It seems that every time morale starts to improve yet another thing will hit your paper. I can only praise them for their courage and determination to give a quality safe service in the face of it all. The future remains to be seen but be warned women of Barrow, you need to fight for these services and not give into those who appear to be happy to take or limit, the services. Please spare a thought for the staff who are still under attack, serving your needs this Christmas

It will be disastrous moving SCBU to Maternity for both maternity and neonatal staff who are trained in two different specialities one designed to care for 'well' babies and their mothers and another to support the needs of small or sick babies. It is inconceivable that the staff from each area will be required to 'support' colleagues if there are staffing issues! That is NOT to say that each is not confident and competent in their area of expertise but I would not want a neonatal nurse to deliver my baby or a midwife to care for my sick baby. Having watched from afar it seems to me that this is about money and downgrading the unit and as I have seen in my own area this could be a reality! The midwives and neonatal nurses at FGH have been ground down, disrespected and only just managing to keep afloat. It seems that every time morale starts to improve yet another thing will hit your paper. I can only praise them for their courage and determination to give a quality safe service in the face of it all. The future remains to be seen but be warned women of Barrow, you need to fight for these services and not give into those who appear to be happy to take or limit, the services. Please spare a thought for the staff who are still under attack, serving your needs this Christmas

It will be disastrous moving SCBU to Maternity for both maternity and neonatal staff who are trained in two different specialities one designed to care for 'well' babies and their mothers and another to support the needs of small or sick babies. It is inconceivable that the staff from each area will be required to 'support' colleagues if there are staffing issues! That is NOT to say that each is not confident and competent in their area of expertise but I would not want a neonatal nurse to deliver my baby or a midwife to care for my sick baby. Having watched from afar it seems to me that this is about money and downgrading the unit and as I have seen in my own area this could be a reality! The midwives and neonatal nurses at FGH have been ground down, disrespected and only just managing to keep afloat. It seems that every time morale starts to improve yet another thing will hit your paper. I can only praise them for their courage and determination to give a quality safe service in the face of it all. The future remains to be seen but be warned women of Barrow, you need to fight for these services and not give into those who appear to be happy to take or limit, the services. Please spare a thought for the staff who are still under attack, serving your needs this Christmas

The 2010 Andy Burnham Labour Cuts - which are being continued by the Tory Lib-Dem Coalition (i.e. Tim Farron) mean that if the Trust has £5 to spend now, then by 2015 it will have only £4.

That is a political choice the Coalition Government has made. Blaming the Trust Management won't make the problem go away or alter the maths.

There Is No Money - on the scale needed to keep everything running the way it always has been.

The Trust can either keep spinning the plates and pretending it s All O.K. - until the next diasaster - or bite the bullet and make the services fit the budget and the necessary standards. That means closures, job losses and not everything being available on all sites or even in UHMB at all.

People also need to face the fact that even if the pot of money was unlimited, the staff with the required levels of expertise don't want to come to Barrow, which is why the costs have spiralled by having to use locums - something that just can't be done any longer.

Surely it must be better to have a properly staffed, safe service run by people who see lots of these cases and have the expertise, rather than muddle on until the next crisis?

Yes that does mean longer journeys, but that's the price paid for living in a remoter and more beautiful part of the country.

This is only the first of many services Jackie and David are taking away from FGH. People of Barrow wake up or we won't have a hospital

this news makes me so sad midwives do a great job but are not neonatal nurses. i understand new nurses do not want to become deskilled in some ways which they would be only working with babies 32+ weeks at fgh but more specialist neonatal nurses are needed please don't let us loose this service as the is the difference between life and death for some of our babies. the neonatal nurses we have at fgh are fantastic and my 3 daughters owe their lives to them. our closest scbu after fgh is lancaster but been from barrow we are not guaranted a bed there i ended up in a manchester hospital with my middle daughter with no family support and friend close by and had to make my own way to manchester as not allowed to travel with your baby this is not helpful to mum or baby instead of paying a £1000+ for each journey a baby has to make put this money into our services at fgh make us a level 2 unit so can look after babies 28 weeks and up and this would help bring new specialist neonatal nurses to fgh. somebody please look at this again this is wrong and is not the best thing for our babies :-(

This all seems rather odd. Not enough staff to provide a service in one department so let's send it over to
Another department already under staffed. How does this make sense. I have worked in this trust for over 20 years and have never know moral so low throught the hospital. I am seeing changes being introduced slowly under staffs noses that's leading up the road to privatisation of certain departments. I urge all the staff to be wary and fight for what you believe in before it's to late.

its a slippery slope next thing no scbu means no consultant led unit for barrow WATCH THIS SPACE

This is very worrying news for several reasons. Firstly that clinicians at FGH have raised safety concerns about staffing levels within maternity services so soon after the CQC gave maternity services the all clear. Why were these issues not picked up by CQC? If the issue is staffing levels surely the only answer is to increase the drive to recruit more staff? Moving SCBU to within the maternity unit does not help with staffing levels unless of course the midwives do the job of the specialist neonatal nurses. How is this going to improve safety? Lowering the gestational age for transfer is also a worrying move in the wrong direction. When the trust say that they have attempted to recruit more staff and have failed, the answer is they need to try harder. Barrow needs a full consultant led maternity unit but this is clear move towards the unit being downgraded.