§ Baroness WOOTTON of ABINGERMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
The Question was as follows:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether it is a fact that pregnant women in the Mole Valley district of Surrey are not allowed to have their babies at home, owing to the absence of any domestic midwifery service.
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLNo, my Lords, with the possible exception of one part of this district where additional staff will shortly be employed. I understand there are adequate midwives in the integrated maternity service to enable mothers, whose medical and social circumstances allow, to have their babies at home, if they so wish.
§ Baroness WOOTTON of ABINGERMy Lords, I thank my noble friend for his partially satisfactory Answer, and I should like to ask him two further questions. First, can he say whether his Answer that there is an integrated service and a domestic midwifery service available, applies to the area around the village of Westcott? Secondly, is he aware, so long as that service is not available, that when a woman who is apparently having a normal pregnancy, and not her first child, goes into labour she is obliged to wait for an ambulance to be called from a station which is 10 miles away, and that when the ambulance arrives she has to be driven another 12 miles to Redhill hospital? Does my noble friend not agree that this involves very serious risks, not to mention grave and unnecessary anxiety to the patient?
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, in reply to the first supplementary question put to me by my noble friend, my understanding is that the integrated maternity services cover the whole of the Mole Valley, which I understand forms two health districts of East Surrey and Mid-Surrey. My information is that when a further midwife is recruited for this area there will be adequate midwifery services available. With regard to the ambulance service, I understand that there are 2032 ambulance facilities at Dorking, which I believe is only three miles from Westcott. There are also ambulance services at Leatherhead, which is six miles from Westcott; at Epsom, which is eight miles, and at Redhill, to which my noble friend referred, which is 10 miles, and when a person dials for an ambulance the nearest one that is available should be sent.
§ Baroness WOOTTON of ABINGERMy Lords, I thank my noble friend for that reply but I wonder whether he would take it from me that what apparently happens is that ambulances are called from Burgh Heath, which is a considerable distance away, and I have never heard of an ambulance being brought from Dorking in these circumstances.
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, I am very grateful to my noble friend. This is a matter that will concern us when there are four ambulance depots, albeit that they may have only one or two ambulances available, and I should like to look into it.