HC Deb 20 March 2002 vol 382 c440W
Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his policy is on providing specialist maternity and obstetric services in stand-alone dedicated women"s hospitals. [41408]

Yvette Cooper

The national health service provides a variety of types of care for women during pregnancy and childbirth including care in stand-alone dedicated women"s hospitals, general hospital maternity units, as well as midwife-led units. We expect this variety to continue and do not support any one single model of maternity service provision in preference to all others.

It is for health authorities and NHS trusts to decide on the pattern of service provision taking into account the needs of local service users, evidence of effectiveness and available resources.

The Department has set up a Maternity and Neonatal Workforce Group to make recommendations through the Children"s Taskforce on workforce issues and various models for configuration of maternity services.