Salford births still off the table despite lease renewal

The city council is due to agree a fresh five-year lease with Bolton NHS Foundation Trust at the Ingleside maternity facility, which stopped delivering babies more than two years ago.

Salford Royal closed its maternity ward in 2017 as part of a shake-up of services. A replacement birthing centre at Ingleside in Swinton’s Oakwood Park opened the following year, only to shut its doors in January 2022 due to the pandemic and staffing pressures.

This means that, excluding home births, babies cannot currently be born in Salford. Salford residents are sent to hospitals in Manchester or Bolton to have their babies.

Today Cabinet took the decision to renew the lease with Bolton NHS FT for occupation of Ingleside.

Ingleside will continue to provide both antenatal and postnatal care, but due to staffing pressures it would not be safe at this point to reintroduce birthing activity at the unit. https://t.co/1KruJYSQu9

— SalfordMayor (@salford_mayor) June 25, 2024

The Ingleside lease extension, which will run until 2029, will ensure that antenatal and postnatal care can continue at the facility.

However, a report for Salford City Council’s cabinet meeting tomorrow states that, due to ongoing staff shortages, the birthing unit will remain closed.

“There remains a commitment from [the trust] to resume birthing activity at Ingleside when it is safe to do so,” the report states. However, the trust is “unable to provide a timeframe for re-opening due to ongoing staffing and service pressures”.

The foundation trust will be able to sub-lease vacant ground floor space to a GP surgery under the terms of the updated lease.